Muslim cutting off a Christian’s hand left three Christians dead and at least 13 others injured, news reports said.
The October 26 violence in Niger state’s Tungan Rogo village also destroyed 18 houses, Christian news agency Compass Direct reported.
In published remarks the government secretary of Niger state, Adams Erena, said that the troubles began when a Muslim Fulani tribesman had taken his cattle onto the farm of a Christian from the Gwari tribe, damaging his crops.
When the Christian demanded to know why, the Muslim used a machete to cut off one of his hands, he was quoted as saying. News of the severed hand ignited violence that spread to Tungan Rogo, where a policeman, Sgt. Danladi Wasse, was among the Christians who died, Compass Direct said.
RELIGIOUS NERVES
Religious nerves in the area were reportedly already on edge after Muslim militants reportedly attacked the Bosso campus of the Federal University of Technology in Niger State’s capital Minna on September 21.
A group of Muslims, including at least one extremist brandishing a knife, broke into lecture halls at the school in an effort to enforce Sharia, or Islamic law, Compass Direct said, citing sources in the area.
The president of the Fellowship of Christian Students at the university, Joshua Ochoge, was quoted as saying that students were in class “when suddenly, the fanatical Muslim students stormed the halls and began attacking Christian students. The situation later resulted in a fight between the fanatics and the Christian students.”
MUSLIMS SUSPENDED
Authorities at the university suspended the Muslim students responsible for the violence, but Compass Direct said there are fears that revenge seeking Muslim students are planning to attack again the university’s Christians and the larger Christian community in Niger state. Religious attacks increased in Nigeria since 1999 in especially several northern and central states as they began to introduce the ‘Shariah’ Penal Code, analysts say.
Some church sources say the death toll since 1999 could be as high as 10,000 while the Committee of Rehabilitation and Reconciliation of Internally Displaced People reportedly has said that over 50,000 people died in religious violence.
Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo, known as a ‘born again’ Christian, has been under pressure to intervene by changing the constitution to increase the rights of Christians, who comprise roughly 40 percent of Nigeria’s nearly 130-million strong population. (With reports from Nigeria and BosNewsLife Research).
