The presidential candidate of Nigeria’s main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar has again condemned the killing of Deborah Yakubu, a 200-level Home Economics student of Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto, North-West Nigeria explaining why he called for the deletion of the tweet.
He made this known on Sunday night while speaking during a live discussion on People’s Townhall, on Channels Television which was monitored by Africa Today News, New York.
Atiku explained that he actually called that his initial tweet on the murder of the student be deleted because he did not approve of the tweet. The Christian student was lynched in May for alleged blasphemy.
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Africa Today News, New York recalls that Atiku’ tweet condemning the killing of Deborah was greeted with stark criticisms but the PDP presidential candidate said he condemned the murder of the student in ‘subsequent statements’.
‘I asked the tweet to be deleted because I normally approve every tweet. So, since I didn’t approve it, I said, ‘delete it’. If you read my subsequent statements on that murder, I condemned it.
‘There is nowhere it is said or it is an injunction in the Islamic faith that you can go and take somebody’s life, nowhere, it has to be through due process,’ the former Vice President said.
While Atiku insisted that the tweet was not deleted over fears that the negative reactions could affect his political aspiration, he said the only thing that went wrong was that he did not give his consent for the tweet to be put up. ‘I am not a person who is afraid to take a stand on issues; you know the stand I took on Sharia. I was pelted, I was abused in the North, but then how long did the Sharia last?’ he said. “I told them they were having a political Sharia and I was vilified, they threw stones at me.
‘There was nothing they did not do; that did not make me change my position as far as Sharia is concerned. Where is the Sharia today? So, the only thing that went wrong with that tweet was that it was not authorised by me.’
Samuel, a second-year student of the Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto State, was killed on Thursday following an allegation that she had blasphemed Muhammad (SAW), the prophet of Islam.
Her death sparked an outrage from various individuals and groups, including the Christian community who demanded that her killers be brought to justice.