This is the agony of a father, who, just like Mary, the mother of Jesus, watched with agony the killing of his daughter Deborah. In this interview wit
This is the agony of a father, who, just like Mary, the mother of Jesus, watched with agony the killing of his daughter Deborah. In this interview with Dr. Bola Adewara, editor E-life, Garba Emmanuel said
… Deborah was seized, stoned to death and burnt in the presence of over 100 policemen, Civil Defence and DSS
… I never said my children will not go to school again.
… no one told Deborah to withdraw any voice notes. She made the voice note Wednesday evening and got killed Thursday morning
… I will move to nowhere. I am ok here.
With the news of riots and destructions in Sokoto town, we wonder if you are safe. Should we make efforts to evacuate you and your family from that part of Nigeria?
I will move to nowhere. I am ok here. I am already established here, and these people can’t scare me away from this place.
The information we heard was that you were there when the stoning of Deborah took place. How did you get there such that you witnessed the sad event like Mary, the mother of Jesus, saw the killing of her son?
Have you listened to the voice note they claimed led to the incident, where she said Holy Spirit, nothing will happen to us?
Yes, sir. We all heard the voice note…
Ok. That Thursday morning, around 9.00 am, she called me on her phone to say that some people wanted to kill her. I quickly left where I was and went to her school.
On getting there, I saw a huge crowd of these boys and girls. The school authority had taken her and locked her and another girl at the security gate by the school entrance.
I then decided to report the matter to the police that there was a problem at the school. The police responded that I had no right to report what was happening in the school; the school was supposed to call them.
I told them that I am a citizen of Nigeria and I have the right to report any wrongdoing happening anywhere if it affects me or anybody. So, they gave me two police officers in plain clothes.
On arrival at the school, they saw that the situation was beyond what they could handle.
They called the DPO, the Area Command, Police headquarters and the DSS office. The DSS arrived first on the scene and began shooting in the air to disperse the mob, some of whom ran away.
They attempted to rescue her, but the door of the security post was locked with a padlock, and the person holding the key was not there. Later, more police officers arrived and began to shoot teargas all over the place.
As this continued, more mobs from the adjourning communities began to arrive, all the passersby by the road, because the school is on the express road, began to troop in, and the crowd was much.
At about 11 am, more police officers, Civil Defence, and DSS were around and were teargassing the whole place. Rather than break the door and rescue her, they were waiting for the person with the key. Soon, the person came, and in bringing her out, the mob took hold of her.
As they were struggling with the security men, one of the mob hit her on the head with a huge iron rod, and she fell to the ground.
That was how they began to stone her, hit her with rods and sticks, and she died. She was killed in the presence of all the security agents.
After they killed her, the mob was jubilant that they killed her. The students and people from the villages were all shouting Allah Akbar, Allahu Akbar.
They were all happy and jubilating. Different people began to say, ‘I am the one that killed her’, ‘I am the one that killed her’.
After some twenty to thirty minutes, a lady in hijab, one of her schoolmates, began to shout, a kone ta, a kone ta, akone ta, meaning ‘set her body ablaze, set her body ablaze.’
That was when they gathered tyres, and one of the boys brought his machine from where they siphoned the fuel, which they poured on the tyres and set her body ablaze.
After about two hours, the school authority and the police officers took her body to the mortuary.
So, they seized her alive from the security agents, killed her and set her body ablaze, all this in their presence?
Yes, they got hold of her from the police…
Like how many policemen were there?
More than one hundred. They were more than one hundred. The DSS people there were not many.
The DSS people tried to rescue her but left it to the police when they came in about five to seven vehicles, including the civil defence. But see what eventually happened
Would I be correct to say the police officers deliberately did what they did? This number of police could not rescue just one girl!
Well, what can I say? If they did it deliberately, I leave them to the hands of God because I believe that if the police and the other security agencies wanted to do the rescue her, immediately they shot in the air and the mob dispersed, they could have taken her into one of their many vehicles and zoom off.
They could have broken the padlock and repaired it later. But… they did what they did. I leave everything to God.
Can you tell me who Deborah was? How old was she?
She was about 22. She was just a humble girl who wanted a bright future. She believed so much in the Lord and did not play with Church activities.
In her school, she was a member of the Christian Student Association and was well known in the Church because she didn’t miss Church activities. She was not a troublemaker.
What denomination do you people attend?
ECWA. We are based in Magajia in Niger state in Rijaw Local government. I was in Sokoto when she called me to say they wanted to kill her, and I immediately moved to the school.
They were on holiday during the Salah break, and the school resumed on Saturday and started exams on Monday. They were still in the exam mood Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and on Thursday, they killed her.
We heard that they told her to withdraw the voice note…
No. Nobody told her to remove the voice note. She made the recording on Wednesday evening, and on Thursday morning, they started making arrangements to kill her.
What has the school authority said on this?
Nothing. They have not said anything to me, nothing from them.
What about the Churches, the Christian Association of Nigeria CAN, ECWA Church?
Oh, CAN has been so wonderful; same with the ECWA Church. The General Secretary, the President of the Church. Oh! I praise God for them. All CAN officials, including the CAN National General Secretary.
Many churches, including the Baptist, and Catholic, have done so much. They didn’t keep quiet. My happiness is that her death shows the unity of the body of Christ. I see Christians speak with one voice. The CAN chairman in Sokoto met with the governor, the Sultan, etc.
Over this matter, so many churches got vandalised, including the ECWA, Cherubim and Seraphim, and the Igbo markets. The Christian body has tried for us.
How did her mother hear of the killing?
Some of Deborah’s mates broke the news to her. When I got back home, I heard that when she was told, she fainted and was rushed to the hospital in Magajiya. She slept there because she had high blood pressure.
How is she coping now?
There is no problem. We have peace. Even the Muslims now know that what they had done was wrong and not Islamic. We have said this so many times.
Some Arab preachers also said no place in the Koran that says they should kill anybody. Even Gumi, one of their Sheiks, said when Mohammed was alive, he was insulted face to face, and he never asked anybody to deal with no one.
Is it now after his death that anyone would say they should kill? He said it was some Mallams, some Ulama, who took that decision so they could control their masses. It is not in Islamic laws.
Their law says if anyone is caught in blasphemy, they should be taken to the Sharia courts, and it is the court that will determine if blasphemy was indeed committed.
The Muslims have condemned it. The Sultan and many Muslims were not happy about this.
We read in a paper this morning that you said none of your children would go to school again…
No. that is a lie. I never said so. You can’t stop your children from going to school because of this.
I guess they misquoted the calls of our people not to send their children to that school again because if you send your child to school and what you get is her dead body, it is a break of trust.
If they cannot keep your children safe, why send them to that school?
There is a call that the family should take the school to court for their inability to guarantee their daughter’s security. What do you think?
No, I am not going to court because if I do, it won’t bring her back. For three to four years, you are still in court. For what? I am not going to court.
But if the government wants, they are free. She is an indigene of Nigeria. Government can decide to go to court to prosecute the offender as a deterrent for a reoccurrence.
Government should handle it and punish the culprits so it would not happen again.
How are Deborah’s siblings handling this matter? Is she the only child?
There is no problem. They all know there is nothing we can do now. She is not my only child and not the eldest.
They know that all we can do now is to thank God and praise him because there is nothing we can do to bring her back.
We believe in God and thank Him that He has called her back home this way. How many people die, and the news goes far as this? So, she is a child of a poor man, but her name has gone around worldwide. Glory be to God.
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