Posted on 02/10/2005 6:39:03 PM PST by underlying
February 7 (Compass) -- Judith Lan’guti, a young Christian woman in Numan, a town in the northern state of Adamawa, Nigeria, was shot dead without provocation on January 28 by soldiers who had been deployed to keep peace in the town following the outbreak of violence between Muslims and Christians.
“The murder of Miss Judith is coming 19 months after the killing of our Rev. Esther Jinkai Ethan by a Muslim fanatic,” Mahula Tika, a Christian community leader in Numan, told Compass. “Up to this moment, the fanatic has not been prosecuted and now we are being forced to mourn the death of another Christian woman.”
Ethan, a Christian evangelist, was killed in Numan by a Muslim man 19 months ago. Her murder set Muslims against Christians, and Numan has remained under siege since.
Two major clashes occurred in the town in May 2003 and May 2004. Violence claimed several hundred lives and destroyed valuable property. (See Compass Direct, “Nigerian Town Riots on Anniversary of Preacher’s Murder,” June 14, 2004.)
While Christians in Numan town were observing the first anniversary of Mrs. Ethan’s death, Muslims there built a mosque beside the cathedral of the Lutheran church and adjacent to the palace of the town’s Christian monarch, Feddy Soditi Bongo. The construction of the mosque sparked another religious clash which claimed more lives and displaced hundreds of residents.
More Violence Likely
Major General John Ahmadu, speaking to journalists on February 1 in the city of Yola, said that reports reaching him indicate a likelihood of the reoccurrence of religious turmoil in Numan.
“The present wind [religious crisis] that is blowing in Numan does no one any good,” Ahmadu said.
The officer declined to comment on Lan’guti’s killing.
Christians in Numan reportedly interpret the Adamawa state government’s removal of Bongo as persecution against them. According to local sources, the deposed monarch has been forced into exile in Bali town in the northern state of Taraba.
Police Cannot Find Man in Custody
Meanwhile in the city of Kano, the family of Yusuf Olawale, 27, reported him missing and believes he may have been killed. The family has not heard from Olawale since his arrest by Islamic law enforcers on May 13 on allegations that he had breached sharia, the Islamic legal code.
Tunde Olawele, Yusuf’s older brother, said that police searching for the young Christian man have not found any trace of him in the last six months.
“We are scared that he might have been killed since the police claim they have not seen him and have declared him wanted on the same offense of breaching the Islamic law,” the elder Olawale told Compass.
Alhaji Aliyu Usman, a Muslim and the Kano State Commissioner for Justice, declined to talk to Compass about the Olawale arrest.
However, Usman did comment, “A judge of the Islamic court may use his discretion within the confines of the Islamic law to impose an imprisonment or a fine on a Christian or any non-Muslim who has breached the Islamic law.”
The Olawale family fears for Yusuf because he was arrested a few days after Muslims rioted in Kano, Plateau state, last year. (See Compass Direct, “Muslim ‘Protest’ Turns Deadly in Nigeria,” May 13, 2004.)
That clash left scores of Christians dead or maimed, and destroyed several churches. Yusuf Olawale’s family thinks he may have been killed along with other Christians.
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