Deborah Yakubu: CAN Condemns Abuja National Mosque Imam Over ‘Redline’ Comments

The Christian Association of Nigeria has reacted to a statement made by the Imam of National Mosque Abuja, Prof. Ibrahim Maqari, in which he tweeted that everyone should know that “Muslims have some redlines beyond which MUST NOT be crossed.”

The Imam tweeted the message on Friday, several hours after Deborah Samuel Yakubu, a student of Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto, was gruesomely murdered by a mob who accused her of alleged blasphemy.

The imam’s tweet further reads: “The dignity of the Prophet (PBUH) is at the forefront of the redlines.

“If our grievances are not properly addressed, then we should not be criticized for addressing them ourselves.”

The CAN President, His Eminence, Rev. Dr. Samson Olasupo A. Ayokunle, while speaking on Arise Television Morning Show, said that rather than a cleric warning about a redline on what he considers to be an offense, he should report to appropriate authority or law enforcement agent to look into it.

“And I want to warn some religious leaders who have also come out to be saying that there is a redline; in a country where we have democracy. We are not operating two laws, if there is a red line for you, report it appropriately and let the law enforcement agency handle it,” he said on Monday.

Ayokunle further admonished Christians to exhibit religious tolerance and respect other people’s religious views but insisted that it stands barbaric for anyone to take anybody’s life or take laws into their hands over perceived alleged offense.

Meanwhile, Ayokunle said that from information at his disposal, the girl in question was criticizing muslim religious materials in the class platform which was created to share academic information with the students and some people who were infuriated by her comments were counting that as blasphemy.

The CAN president confirmed petitioning the international community to prevail on the federal government to come hard on those who take laws into their hands under the guise of religion.

“They did not only beat, they killed and set her on fire, in Nigeria! Is that a pride to our nation? Is that development? Is that growth? Any right thinking person knows that that was one action too many and it should not be allowed in the guise of any religion.

“If we are talking to the government to be more decisive, and they are not, then we need to cry to the rest of the world to call on our government to order, to be more serious; because nobody has monopoly of violence, if people are doing this and they are going scot free about it as if it is a banana republic, then a state of disorder will come in eventually,” he said.

Regarding the forthcoming 2023 general election, Ayokunle said that with the tension in Nigeria and respective cry against marginalization, the Christian body will not back a Muslim-muslim or Christian-Christian ticket if they are fielded by any political party.

“It should not be only me that is saying that, any right thinking Nigerian should say what I’m saying. There is a lot of tension presently now in Nigeria, which we did not have in 1993 when we had Moshood Abiola. There is tension in the agitation on marginalization. We need to develop homegrown democracy, it is a democracy that will give everybody sense of belonging about the project in Nigeria.

“This is a country of complexity that will only require that we think again. Blanket democracy from the West may not help , we need to build a contextualized democracy. A democracy that will be able to handle effectively our complexities and manage it effectively.

“One of them is that the people who have being crying about marginalization, we bring them in because we need them. We don’t say, no, that’s not part of our constitution, why shouldn’t it be part of constitution if that will create justice,” he said.