from public schools in November for conducting an evangelistic outreach amid growing concern about renewed religious violence in the African nation, the Compass Direct news agency reported Thursday February 3.
The families of two of the students, identified as Miss Hanatu Haruna Alkali and Abraham Adamu Misal, were attacked on January 26 when militants went to their family homes in
the state of Gombe in northern Nigeria intending to kill them, said Compass Direct,
which investigates the plight of persecuted Christians.
A sister of Alkali, who asked not to be named, reported to Compass from Gombe that Muslim militants have attacked the house several times, while family members "fear for their lives."
Rev. Oludare Aliu, national coordinator of the students’ ministry of the Evangelical Church of West Africa (ECWA), confirmed the report, Compass Direct said.
“Muslim militants went to Gombe to … kill Hannatu, but fortunately, she was not at home at the time. The family was held at gun point," the official was quoted as saying. "Hannatu’s father happens to be a former military officer. He wrestled with the militants and was able to disarmed one of them who had a gun. While he was fighting them, one of the militants stabbed Hannatu’s mother with a knife. She has been treated for the wounds.”
STUDENT IN HIDING
Student Alkali is reportedly in hiding. "Also, the militants attacked the family of Abraham Adamu Misal; he has already escaped and is now in hiding. We are yet to get details about the whereabouts of the other three students," Aliu told Compass Direct.
News of the tensions came shortly after Christians in Nigeria expressed concerns that inter-religious violence may erupt again and said a government report grossly underreports the number of Christians killed by Muslim militants in violent attacks last year.
CHURCHES DESTROYED
Estimates of the value of churches and homes destroyed in the clashes also are much too low, leaders reportedly said. The report states that 84 people died in religious violence in Nigeria’s Kano region in 2004. However, Methodist Bishop Foster Ekeleme, chairman of the Kano chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), told Compass Direct that reliable estimates place the casualty count at nearly 3,000 Christian fatalities.
Alkali, Misal, and three other Christian students indentified as Habakkuk Solomon, Hankuri Gaya, and Uzochukwu were reportedly expelled by the authorities of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) and the Federal Polytechnic in Bauchi for sharing the gospel with Muslim students.
Compass Direct quoted school officials as saying that Muslims complained that the Christian students "blasphemed the prophet Mohammed."
The reported death sentence came less than two months after Nache Achi, a student and president of the campus chapter of ECWA students’ ministry at ATBU in Bauchi, was murdered over the incident on December 8, 2004. He was not part of the group of Christian students conducting the gospel outreach, Compass Direct said.
CALL FOR JUSTICE
Leaders of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Bauchi have urged the Nigerian government to carry out an investigations into the murder of Achi and to persecute those who killed him. They also demanded the reinstatement of the five expelled Christian students and the removal of the head officials of the two public schools for contributing to the conflicts between Muslim and Christian students, Compass Direct reported.
About 50 percent of Nigeria’s roughly 138 million people are Muslims, 40 percent
are Christians, according to official estimates.
(Compass Direct information used with permission, BosNewsLife News Center)
