USNLG petitions and seeks Ganduje’s sanction
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
US Nigeria Law Group (USNLG) has petitioned the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) over the jailing in Kano on 5 April of Mubarak Bala, an atheist and Humanist Association President, for blaspheme.
USNLG also alerted USCIRF to the suspension and subsequent sack on 3 April of Islamic cleric Nuru Khalid by a Juma’at Mosque in Abuja for criticising President Muhammadu Buhari over terrorist killings in Nigeria.
Bala, who renounced Islam and became an atheist, was sentenced to 24 years in imprison by an Islamic High Court after pleading guilty to an 18-count charge of blasphemy and public incitement.
Before his latest ordeal, he had been persecuted for years and subjected to death threats for renouncing Islam. He was forcibly committed to a psychiatric institution in Kano for 18 days in 2014, where he was forcibly drugged.
After the incident, the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) took up the case and felt Bala’s human rights were violated.
“The real reason for this outrageous and inhumane action is because Mubarak has renounced Islam and has openly declared himself to be an atheist,” the IHEU said, documented by Wikipedia.
USNLG Managing Partner Emmanuel Ogebe, a human rights lawyer based in Washington, on 6 April expressed commiseration on the jailing of Bala, who is adopted as a Prisoner of Conscience by USCIRF.
Ogebe said his conviction is religiously motivated and comes weeks after Solomon Tarfa, a Christian missionary orphanage owner, was jailed by a Kano court after two years of ordeal that began with his arrest in December 2019.
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USNLG seeks Ganduje’s sanction by US
“Sadly it was the second time in 20 years that Tarfa and Du Merci orphanage were arrested, closed down and prosecuted in two-decades-long state persecution although he was found not guilty in the 2002 case and also on most charges in the 2021 case,” Ogebe lamented in the petition to USCIRF.
“Like some of the Du Merci orphans still held captive by Kano state, Mubarak Bala was reportedly abducted from Kaduna State and whisked to Kano State where he was subjected to trial.
“It remains unclear if this was even legal and whether Kano had jurisdiction over him.
“This latest incident confirms Kano State’s poor reputation as an egregious persecutor and state abuser of religious freedom.
“Accordingly, we reiterate our call for sanctions against [Kano State] Governor [Abdullahi] Ganduje including the revocation of his U.S. visa as we did following his visit to the US in December.”
Nuru Khalid
USNLG also drew the attention USCIRF to the suspension and then sack of Khalid “for a sermon he preached on recent massacres in Nigeria.”
The Steering Committee of Apo Legislative Quarters Juma’at Mosque in Abuja fired Khalid from his position as Chief Imam on 3 April.
The committee had suspended him the previous day for criticising Buhari over the attack on an Abuja-Kaduna train on the night of 28 March, during which eight passengers died and several others were wounded.
Khalid, in his Friday sermon on 1 April, knocked Buhari for failing to visit Kaduna over the terrorist atttack, saying mere condemnation was not enough.
He said Buhari was in Kaduna for campaigns but refused to visit the state after the bomb attack on the passenger train.
“Everyone condemned the incident, except the bandits. So condemnation is not enough. The president should visit the state to sympathise with the victims.
“The president has been to Kaduna for campaigns but couldn’t go to the state on a sympathy visit,” Khalid said.
Khalid was appointed on 5 April by another Juma’at Mosque behind the Central Bank Nigeria (CBN) Quarters in Abuja as Chief Imam from Friday 8 April.
“It is deeply ironic that as Nigeria has undergone two weeks of daily bloodbath from March 20th up to today [April 6t h], the only person to have lost his job on account of the horrendous insecurity was a cleric bold enough to lament the deaths of innocent citizens,” Ogebe said in the petition.
“We call on USCIRF to duly note the foregoing and recommend appropriately to the State Department necessary action.
“Thank you for your prompt response condemning this travesty and congrats on your recent congressional reauthorisation.”
Click here for USCIRF’s statement on MBala https://www.uscirf.gov/news-room/releases-statements/uscirf-condemns-mubarak-bala-prison-sentence-calls-us-
government?fbclid=IwAR3HxVJifoGac2bzcwHuwEIMXlgGkLfhBVCmd6GnHOugyxEc1EmV76TEoiA.