Headline

Outrage As Students Beat, Burn Female Colleague For ‘Blasphemy’ In Sokoto

Published

3 years ago

May 12, 2022

Nigerians on Thursday demanded justice for a yet-to-be-identified female student of the Shehu Shagari College of Education in‪ Sokoto State after she was mobbed and burnt by some students of the school for allegedly insulting Prophet Muhammad (SAW).

This is as the school’s management also directed the immediate closure of the school following the incident.

The incident was said to have taken place on Thursday morning. The female student, it was learnt, was beaten to death and subsequently burnt by Muslim students in the school for blasphemy.

A source who spoke with our correspondent in the state confirmed that the deceased, named Deborah was alleged to have used blasphemous language.

According to the source, “She (the deceased) was having an argument with some of her schoolmates over their ongoing examination and when she was asked how she managed to pass her exams.

“She was asked to withdraw the statement and apologize which she refused.

“The school security intervene, and took her to their post but they were overpowered by students after which she was killed in the process.

“After killing her, she was burnt down on the school premises” the source added

But the school’s management in a circular dated 12th May 2022, while announcing the immediate closure of the college, described the incident as an “early morning Students rampage”.

The circular read, “Following today’s early morning Students rampage in the College, the College Management has resolved to close down the College indefinitely with immediate effect. Consequently, all students are hereby directed to vacate the College campus immediately (12th May, 2022).”

Outraged by the incident, Nigerians on Twitter, asked the Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, and other relevant stakeholders to ensure justice is served.

See reactions as compiled by The PUNCH:

@aproko_doctor wrote, “Video of that female student murdered in Sokoto by a mob for “religious reasons” is proof that we have a long way to go in this country. Her murderers made a video about it, knowing that nothing will happen to them. They’d even be praised in certain quarters. The year is 2022.”

@SavvyRinu – “A female student was kïlled by her own people in Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto today. According to them, she insulted the prophet. She was murdered in a school & the school authorities couldn’t intervene. What kind of country is this?

@TheFavouredWoman – “A female student of Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto has been reportedly beaten and burnt to death for ‘religious blasphemy.’ Video is gory and horrible. You hear news like this, and remember that this country’s issues are bigger than our economic woes.”

@Letter_to_Jack – “All the boys whose faces appeared in that tragic trending video from Sokoto state will have elevated status in their society as a result, they will be tagged heroes and tipped for greatness. In a few years, they will occupy powerful seats. That’s the way it works in the North. 💔”

@FarooqKperogi – “Murderers of Christian Woman in Sokoto Must Be Arrested & Punished! I just watched a bloodcurdling video clip of a bunch of murderous, maniacal brutes murdering & burning a Christian woman at the Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto because she allegedly blasphemed Islam.”

@AishaYesufu – “If you are one of those that lynch thieves just take this moment to know that you and those sokoto students who killed their fellow student are the same. Hope you use this as a mirror into your despicable acts.
No one has the right in anyway whatsoever to kill another.
No one!

@Belshagy – “Any mob action anywhere killing anyone for any reason is wrong, barbaric and un-Islamic. The sooner our ulama wakes up to educate people on sensitive issues like these the better. The mob action against the lady in Sokoto is most unfortunate and completely condemned.”

@OgbeniDipo – “Some of the faces of the criminal religious fanatics and animals who stoned and burnt a female student of Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto today was visible. I hope arrests are made and they get prosecuted.”

@mrmacaronii – “According to multiple reports, Deborah a female student of Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto, accused of Blasphemy was killed and burnt. This is what happens when there are no consequences for actions in society. The government must wake up from their slumber!!”

Meanwhile, Governor Tambuwal has also ordered the immediate closure of the state school over the incident.

Tambuwal, in a statement by the state’s Commissioner for Information, Isah Bajini Galandanci, also directed the Ministry of Higher Education and relevant security agencies in the state to commence investigations into the cause of the unfortunate incident.

“It has come to the notice of Sokoto State Government, the unfortunate incident that took place at the Shehu Shagari College of Education (SSCOE), Sokoto in which a student of the college, lost her life.

“The government has ordered immediate closure of the college.

“The governor has directed the Ministry of Higher education and relevant security agencies in the state to commence investigations into the remote and immediate causes of the incident and report back to Government”

Tambuwal, however, called on the people of the state to remain calm and maintain peace while assuring that the government would take appropriate actions on the findings of the investigations by the relevant authority.

Headline

Hiroshima Marks 80 Years As US-Russia Nuclear Tensions Rise

Published

5 minutes ago

August 7, 2025

Editor

Japan marked 80 years since the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on Wednesday with a ceremony reminding the world of the horrors unleashed, as sabre-rattling between the United States and Russia keeps the nuclear “Doomsday Clock” close to midnight.

A silent prayer was held at 8:15 am (2315 GMT), the moment when US aircraft Enola Gay dropped “Little Boy” over the western Japanese city on August 6, 1945.

On a sweltering morning, hundreds of black-clad officials, students and survivors laid flowers at the memorial cenotaph, with the ruins of a domed building in the background, a stark reminder of the horrors that unfolded.

In a speech, Hiroshima mayor Kazumi Matsui warned of “an accelerating trend toward military buildup around the world”, against the backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the chaos in the Middle East.

“These developments flagrantly disregard the lessons the international community should have learned from the tragedies of history,” he said.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said it was Japan’s mission “to take the lead… toward a world without nuclear weapons”.

The final death toll of the Hiroshima attack would hit around 140,000 people, killed not just by the colossal blast and the ball of fire, but also later by the radiation.

Three days after “Little Boy”, on August 9, another atomic bomb killed 74,000 people in Nagasaki. Imperial Japan surrendered on August 15, bringing an end to World War II.

Today, Hiroshima is a thriving metropolis of 1.2 million but the attacks live on in the memories of many.

On the eve of the ceremony, people began lining up to pay their respects to the victims in front of the cenotaph.

Before dawn on Wednesday, families who lost loved ones in the attack also came to pray.

Yoshie Yokoyama, 96, who arrived in a wheelchair with her grandson, told reporters that her parents and grandparents were bomb victims.

“My grandfather died soon after the bombing, while my father and mother both died after developing cancer. My parents-in-law also died, so my husband couldn’t see them again when he came back from battlefields after the war.

“People are still suffering,” she added.

Wednesday’s ceremony was set to include a record of around 120 countries and regions including, for the first time, Taiwanese and Palestinian representatives.

The United States — which has never formally apologised for the bombings — was represented by its ambassador to Japan. Russia and China were absent.

Nihon Hidankyo, the grassroots organisation that last year won the Nobel Peace Prize, is representing the dwindling number of survivors, known as hibakusha.

As of March, there were 99,130 hibakusha, according to the Japanese health ministry, with the average age of 86.

“I want foreign envoys to visit the peace memorial museum and understand what happened,” the group’s co-chair Toshiyuki Mimaki told local media ahead of the commemorations.

Pope Leo XIV said in a statement that “in our time of mounting global tensions and conflicts”, Hiroshima and Nagasaki remained “living reminders of the profound horrors wrought by nuclear weapons”.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that “the very weapons that brought such devastation to Hiroshima and Nagasaki are once again being treated as tools of coercion”.

– Younger generation –
The attacks remain the only time atomic bombs have been used in wartime.

Kunihiko Sakuma, 80, who survived the blasts as a baby, told AFP he was hopeful that there could eventually be a nuclear-free world.

“The younger generation is working hard for that end,” he said ahead of the ceremony.

But in January, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ “Doomsday Clock” shifted to 89 seconds to midnight, the closest in its 78-year history.

The clock symbolising humanity’s distance from destruction was last moved to 90 seconds to midnight over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Russia and the United States account for around 90 percent of the world’s over 12,000 warheads, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

SIPRI warned in June that “a dangerous new nuclear arms race is emerging at a time when arms control regimes are severely weakened,” with nearly all of the nine nuclear-armed states modernising their arsenals.

Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump said that he had ordered the deployment of two nuclear submarines following an online spat with former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev.

Headline

Rare 1937 ‘Hobbit’ Discovered In House Clearance Sells For $57,000

Published

1 hour ago

August 7, 2025

Editor

A rare first-edition copy of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” sold for 43,000 pounds ($57,000) at auction on Wednesday, after it was found during a house clearance in South-West England.

Purchased by a private collector in the United Kingdom, the book is one of 1,500 original copies of the British author’s seminal fantasy novel that were published in 1937.

Of those, only “a few hundred are believed to still remain”, according to the auction house Auctioneum, which discovered the book on a bookcase at a home in Bristol.

Bidders from around the world drove the price up by more than four times what the auction house expected for the manuscript.

“It’s a wonderful result for a very special book,” said Auctioneum rare books specialist Caitlin Riley.

“The surviving books from the initial print run are now considered some of the most sought-after books in modern literature,” Auctioneum said in a statement.

Auctioneum unearthed the book during a routine house clearance after its owner passed away.

“Nobody knew it was there,” Riley said. “It was just a run-of-the-mill bookcase.”

“It was clearly an early Hobbit at first glance, so I just pulled it out and began to flick through it, never expecting it to be a true first edition,” she said.

“I couldn’t believe my eyes,” she added, calling it an “unimaginably rare find”.

The copy is bound in light green cloth and features rare black-and-white illustrations by Tolkien, who created his beloved Middle-earth universe while he was a professor at the University of Oxford.

The book was passed down in the family library of Hubert Priestley, a botanist connected to the university.

“It is likely that both men knew each other,” according to Auctioneum, which said Priestley and Tolkien shared mutual correspondence with author C.S. Lewis, who was also at Oxford.

“The Hobbit”, which was followed by the epic series “The Lord of the Rings”, has sold more than 100 million copies worldwide.

The sagas were turned into a hit movie franchise in the 2000s.

A first edition of “The Hobbit” with a handwritten note in Elvish by the author sold for £137,000 at Sotheby’s in June 2015.

AFP

Headline

Relief For Applicants As Germany Eases Visa Process, Opens Visa Centres In Nigeria, Others

Published

3 hours ago

August 6, 2025

Editor

Germany has expanded its Schengen visa services by launching four new application centres in Africa and the Middle East, including two in Nigeria.

The centres, located in Abuja, Lagos (Nigeria), Yaoundé (Cameroon), and Nicosia (Cyprus), are part of a new seven-year partnership between Germany’s Federal Foreign Office and VFS Global, the international visa processing firm.

Until now, Nigerians applying for German Schengen visas had to go through the German Embassy in Abuja or the Consulate General in Lagos, where limited capacity and high demand often caused delays and long appointment wait times.

The new visa centres are expected to significantly ease the process, cut down on waiting periods, and improve overall access for applicants.

Germany continues to be a major destination for Africans and Middle Easterners pursuing education, healthcare, tourism, and job opportunities.

Meanwhile, VFS Global has issued a warning to the public about fake websites and individuals offering fraudulent visa appointments for a fee.

Recent figures indicate Nigeria had a 45.9% Schengen visa rejection rate in 2024—the third-highest globally after Bangladesh.