HURIWA demands Visa ban for Tambuwal over murder of Deborah

Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, (HURIWA) on Monday, asked The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague to prosecute Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide over the heinous murder of Miss Deborah Yakubu, a Christian student, who was killed by a mob for alleged blasphemy in Sokoto State.

Deborah, a 200-level Home Economics student of Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto, North-West Nigeria, was murdered in May this year by some religious fundamentalists for alleged blasphemy.

HURIWA, in a statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, also asked the international community to “place a visa ban” on the governor over his failure to take necessary action that would bring the alleged masterminds as well as perpetrators of the heinous crime to book.

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HURIWA also faulted perpetual defence of presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, over his initial tweet on the murder on the grounds that he did not approve the tweet before it was released.

HURIWA’s Onwubiko detailed the criminal failure of the governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal to arrest, prosecute and punish the perpetrators of the public stoning of the 22-year-old Christian school girl Deborah Samuel for about nine months now.

He said, “We call for Visa Ban and call on Interpol in Europe to arrest, detain and prosecute the Sokoto state governor for crime against humanity for his government’s conspiratorial silence and act of sabotage of the constitution in failing to prosecute major killers of Deborah Samuel captured in videos that trended everywhere.

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HURIWA alerts the public that it will petitioned embassies like UK, GERMANY, USA, HOLLAND, FRANCE and CANADA in this regard and asked the United States to re-designate Nigeria as a country of particular concern (CPC) for violations of religious freedom.”

HURIWA said it is determined to ensure that the Governor of Sokoto State is compelled by the international community to give adequate accounts of why his administration decided to collude with the killers of Deborah Samuel by the State Government’s conspiratorial silence to that daylight denial of the most fundamental right to Life of the 22 year old female student whose only offence is because she was a Christian by her belief system.