ABUJA, Nigeria, 16 May (AP) \u2014 Nigerian authorities ordered a curfew in a northwestern state where hundreds protested Saturday to demand the release of suspects in the brutal killing of a Christian student accused of blasphemy against Islam.<\/p>\n
Sokoto state Governor Aminu Tambuwal imposed a 24-hour curfew \u201cwith immediate effect\u201d as the protest swelled in the state capital amid religious tensions.<\/p>\n
The victim, identified as Deborah Samuel, was stoned, beaten and burnt to death on Friday at the Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto state after being accused of \u201cmaking a social media post that blasphemed … Prophet Muhammad,\u201d police said.<\/p>\n
Authorities closed the school and asked other students to vacate the premises. Nevertheless, on Saturday students rallied to demand that police release their two fellow students held as suspects in connection with the killing.<\/p>\n
The killing of Samuel, a Christian, highlights the deep division along religious lines in Africa\u2019s most populous country, where violence has erupted in the past in response to actions or comments deemed anti-Islamic.<\/p>\n
In the faraway Kaduna state, about 500 kilometers (310 miles) from Sokoto, the state government also banned protests \u201crelated to religious activity,\u201d citing \u201cmoves by some unpatriotic elements\u201d to organize a demonstration over the incident in Sokoto.<\/p>\n
Christian and Muslim leaders alike condemned the student\u2019s murder and called for the prosecution of the perpetrators.<\/p>\n
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari \u201csaid the news of the killing of the young lady by fellow students was a matter of concern and demanded an impartial, extensive probe into all that happened before and during the incident,\u201d according to a statement from a spokesperson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ABUJA, Nigeria, 16 May (AP) \u2014 Nigerian authorities ordered a curfew in a northwestern state where hundreds protested Saturday to demand the release of suspects in the brutal killing of a Christian student accused of blasphemy against Islam. Sokoto state Governor Aminu Tambuwal imposed a 24-hour curfew \u201cwith immediate effect\u201d as the protest swelled in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-191061","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191061\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}