DEBORAH: Father, mother speak on regret, corpse retrieval to Niger

Following the burial of the late Deborah Samuel lynched for blasphemy at the Shagari College of Education Sokoto, last week, the grieving parents have spoken for the first time about their decision.

The father, Mr. Emmanuel Garba, living at Tungan-Magajiya, Niger, said the family have taken it as an act of God.

“We can’t say or do anything, except to take it easy as an act of God. We have left all to God, we have decided to take it like that,” he told the Daily Post.

According to him, he personally went and brought back the body of his daughter to bury her.

“This is because keeping her in the morgue will not return her back,” he said.

“When I got there, I met government officials and made them understand the need to allow me take her back home and they agreed with me. When we got to the morgue, those in charge asked me to sign the necessary documents and I did. They released the corpse to me.”

He noted the government wanted him to leave the remains, but he said no.

He paid the sum of N120,000 to the driver who brought her back to Niger.

Her mother of seven, Alheri,  also said she had nothing to say.

“I am grateful to God and for your efforts. I have given God my heart and may God strengthen me. We have nothing to say.

“Because of what happened to me, I will no longer send my children to schools where so much money is involved. Because of her education, the education of some of her siblings suffered as it is so difficult to care for them all at the same time. And, now things are difficult for us,” she told the newspaper.