Justice for Bridget Patience Agbahime

It was painful enough last week that some sick folks could have the temerity to rape women and girls fleeing away from the horrors of Boko Haram in the camps where they were staying, but another occurrence left one with further bile in the mouth. 

Last week, a Kano State court freed five people based on the advice of the state’s attorney general and commissioner for justice for, as they say in judicial lingo, want of evidence. Ordinarily, that is one of the duties of a chief law officer who should not waste the time of the court and also save the state too from unnecessary expenses or allowing the innocent to be punished.

Except that does not seem to be the case in this instance. Murderers, still walking free, murdered Bridget Agbahime, 74, wife of Mike Agbahime, a pastor of the Deeper Life Bible Church in Kano city on June 2 for allegedly blaspheming against Islam and its prophet. Usually, such band of murderers are tagged ‘angry mob’ in Nigeria and adherents of different faiths rise up after the crime has been committed that “they do not represent the faith” without forgetting the usual refrain, “the perpetrators must be fished out and punished for this crime.” The legal advice presented to the court, dated June 24, states that the suspects have no case to answer.

In filing a notice of discontinuance and seeking the discharge of the accused in this matter, the Kano State attorney general said, “We received the case diary from the police on June 6 and having gone through the case diary, the attorney general of the state evaluated the facts in accordance with sections 130 and 150 of the criminal procedure code.” Consequently, Dauda Ahmed, Abdulmumeen Mustafa, Zubairu Abubakar, Abdullahi Abubakar, and Musa Abdullahi were discharged last Thursday after the attorney general told the court that they have no case against the suspects. And that commenced the process, one must add, of sweeping this matter under the carpet and Bridget Agbahime’s memory trampled upon. So the state and its security apparatus having failed Agbahime while she was alive failed her in death also and our fault lines deepened further.

It is quite possible that the failure was on the part of the police which could have arrested innocent folks for a crime they did not commit thereby allowing the killers to walk free and so the ministry of justice officials might be justified, after all the court is not a shop where you can buy whatever you want. It could also be that the investigation was bungled deliberately to ensure that the killers’ action of defending their god prevailed after a kaffir who blasphemed has been served her due. The incident happened at the Kofar Wambai market in Kano and the state police spokesperson’s account of the incident then was, “At about 4:30 p.m., there was a disagreement between the late woman and some traders about religion. The woman was said to have blasphemed Prophet Muhammad, which did not go down well with the traders. At that point, an irate mob descended on the woman and lynched her,” Musa Magaji, told journalists.

Even though some witnesses claimed she only asked a young man who wanted to perform ablution in front of her shop to move away and did not blaspheme anybody, this did not stop them from killing her. The police too conveniently did not show up until after the crime was committed and we assumed they would diligently investigate the crime. Good enough that the Christian Association of Nigeria in the northern states have called for fresh investigation into the matter, one only hopes that they have not left it too late. Few months ago, they engaged in a needless battle with CAN national body when it called attention to discrimination against Christians in Nigeria. Too often such religious murders occur without diligent prosecution or willingness to tackle them by the governments at all levels. This column has stridently called for the release of Ibrahim Zakzaky who has been detained since December 2015.

A society where a 14-year old can be married off without her parents’ consent and an emir declaring flatly that nothing can change that must surely treat women with contempt. Mum is the word from our police on this pathetic case in Katsina. Religious bigots are abound who will always want to fight for their gods and that’s why murderers under the guise of religion must be brought to book. Governor Abdullahi Ganduje should take another look at this matter and ensure that Bridget Agbalume get justice, that’s if he can spare time from his major assignment of obliterating his predecessor’s memory.

As America go to the polls

Tomorrow, the United States will elect her 45th president. Perhaps, never before has there been a global attention on the country over the choice of who will lead the world’s self-appointed policeman. This election has also shown the underbelly of American democracy, but painfully the antics of one of the candidates have overshadowed what could be a potentially ceiling breaking moment: the first woman president. The immigration official who stamped my passport early Saturday morning at JFK airport remarked that he has not seen many journalists coming into the US for an election like this one. While I’ve covered presidential elections in the US before, it sure feels good to be part of history covering this one.