The wheel of justice started to grind, Monday, as the Sokoto State Police Command charged two suspects to court over the gruesome murder of Miss. Deborah Samuel, a 200-level Home Economics student of Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto, on Thursday, May 12, 2022.
The victim was lynched, then burnt dead by irate students for aleged blasphemy.
Bilyaminu Aliyu and Aminu Hukunci, both fellow students of the deceased, were docked at a Sokoto Chief Magistrate’s Court for their alleged participation in the crime.
The suspects, who pleaded not guilty to the crime, are being defended by 34 lawyers, led by Professor Mansur Ibrahim.
Prosecuting Inspector Khalil Musa told the court that investigation was in progress as Deborah’s corpse was still in a morgue at the Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto.
The defence counsel, Prof. Mansur Ibrahim, applied for bail for the suspects on liberal terms citing constitutional provisions and sections of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law.
The trial judge (name withheld for security reasons) reserved ruling on the bail application and ordered the accused to be remanded at a correctional centre.
Before she was lynched, Deborah was accused of denigrating Islam on a WhatsApp chat platform set up by her course-mates and refused to retract her post after she was asked to pull it down.
A violent street protest followed the arrest of suspects linked to the lynching of Deborah as the protesters demanded their immediate release by security operatives.
Governor Aminu Tambuwal consequently imposed a 24-hour curfew on Sokoto metropolis on Saturday. But he relaxed the curfew on Monday, as it will now be observed from dusk to dawn.
