The Islamic terrorists who killed Deborah Samuel may have had their way snuffing the life out of a fellow student, but they will live their remaining miserable lives pondering on the last words of their late victim.
Deborah Samuel is said to have asked her killers very simply as they made to end her innocent life saying – “What do you hope to achieve with this?” With these words, the young woman faced the terrorists in her last moments in life, while pleading to be spared by her killers.
This according to Vanguard was a revelation made by friends of the victim, one of whom was identified as Rakia. They told Vanguard that the killers were a combination of fellow students and some other terrorists invited from outside the school by the fellow students who planned the killing.
The said Rakia narrated how the friends of the victim tried helplessly without success to save her life when it became obvious she was in danger. This was following some misunderstanding she had in her class with some fellow students who are Muslims.
These group of Muslim students interpreted Deborah`s words contained in an audio message in their WhatsApp forum as insult to their Prophet Muhammed, the founder of the Islamic religion. For this reason, they adjudged the victim guilty of blasphemy and deserving of death. They went further to arrange for her mob killing together with those who shared their views.
Deborah Samuel was until her painful death in the hands of the terrorists a second-year student of Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto State. Her unlawful and painful killing has since been condemned by some dignitaries in Nigeria, while some remain silent or trying to be politically clever in their condemnation of the terrorist act.
KEY FACTS
- The Nigerian Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo has described the killing of the student as deeply distressing and unjustifiable. His condemnation came almost 48 hours after the killing.
- Alhaji Atiku Abubakar the former Nigerian Vice President and a front runner for the ticket of the People`s Democratic Party (PDP) initially condemned the killing in a Twitter post, but later retracted his comments and deleted the post.
- Late Deborah Samuel was until her painful death in the hands of the terrorists a second-year student of Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto State.
- She was killed for simply holding a personal view, which some fellow students who happened to be Muslims judged to be an insult to their prophet Mohammed.
- Only two people have at the time of this reporting been arrested for the killing, but none have been charged.
- The killing has been condemned by the Sultan of Sokoto and also by the Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari.
NOTABLE QUOTES
“Deborah was my course mate. I just stepped into the class when the uproar on her voice note started.
“It was her course mates that started it. It all started with a debate on the upcoming examination on a general WhatsApp platform created for our course mates. Two students from other departments who overheard some Muslim boys discussing the matter told Deborah’s close friends to prevail on her to retract the statement. But she replied via a voice note on the platform, “Holy Ghost fire. Nothing will happen to me.”
“We were made to understand that some young men were brought from outside (the campus) before the outrage. I was in class when some of our course mates rushed in, saying “There is fire on the mountain o.”
“They got a cab waiting outside to drive her straight to the police station but unfortunately, the mob overpowered everyone who tried to save her.
“The last word in her mouth was, “What do you hope to achieve with this?” By then some of our course mates were making calls to some of our lecturers to save the situation. It was when I got home that I heard she was set ablaze. “
“Since the incident, I have been having a flash of her pleading expression. She pleaded for mercy and called out for help but it was far from her. What a cruel way to die,” said her friend Rakia.
