PROFESSOR MURDER INFURIATES NIGERIA MUSLIMS

Cairo, 6 Jumadil Awwal 1436/25 February 2015 (MINA) – A leading Nigerian Muslim group has denounced the extra-judicial murder of a Nigerian professor that was ignored by mainstream Nigerian media, demanding the quick arrests of perpetrators.

“There is no justification for this type of violence against anyone under any circumstance,” the Muslim Public Affairs Centre (MPAC) said, On Islam quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

“Even at times of war, distinction is made between combatants and innocent inhabitants who by no fault of theirs happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Professor Ahmed Mustapha Falaki of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria was brutally murdered by mobs on Saturday February 14, 2015, as police stood watching. According to MPAC, the late Professor of Agronomy was on an official assignment when his car was snatched by gunmen at Fala village.

“He was reportedly at the scene of the crime for more than two hours frantically making calls to officials in ABU and his family before the Police came (he identified himself by presenting them with his ABU identity card and driver’s licence), accused him and his associates of being members of the fleeing Boko Haram terror group and executed him on the scene,” the group added.

“Before his cold-blooded murder, Professor Falaki was the substantive Director, Institute of Agricultural Research (IAR) of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and former Country Director of the SASAKAWA Project in Nigeria.”

After his murder, police claimed they have killed Boko Haram members to discover later it was Professor Falaki. MPAC has also criticized the absence of the news about his murder in mainstream media.

“Aside the fact that the story did not get the extensive coverage it deserves by the media, it is the responsibility of the state to protect all of its citizens even under the current climate of heightened insecurity,” it said.

“In this and similar cases of suspected extra-judicial killing while combating terrorism, the pertinent question on the lips of most Nigerians is what has happened to our government’s mandate to protect the lives of all Nigerians against extra-judicial killing?”

Nigeria, one of the world’s most religiously committed nations, is divided between a Muslim north and a Christian south. Muslims and Christians, who constitute 55 and 40 percent of Nigeria’s 140 million population respectively, have lived in peace for the most part.

Last August, Amnesty International accused Nigeria military of committing atrocities amounting to war crimes against suspected militants in the north-east Nigerian states, implicating in several war crimes like extrajudicial executions. (T/P011/R03)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)