ABUJA – Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, former Vice president and a 2023 presidential hopeful, has deleted a post he made on his social media pages, Facebook and Twitter about slain Deborah Yakubu after coming under a barrage of threats from fanatics of northern origin who asked him to forget his presidential ambition for condemning the gruesome murder of the Shehu Shagari College of Education student.
Before Atiku harkened to the call of the Islamic fundamentalists, both posts had garnered thousands of reactions within minutes few minutes. We also published Atiku’s condemnation of the act before he deleted the posts.
“There cannot be a justification for such gruesome murder. Deborah Yakubu was murdered, and all those behind her death must be brought to justice,” Mr Atiku said. “My condolences to her family and friends.”
Atiku’s post didn’t go down well with the extremists as most of the commentators warned him to stay away from condemning the murder of the Christian student.
“Our WhatsApp group was created for assignments, tests, exams; not religious messages,” slain Deborah Yakubu was said to have posted on the chat platform.
Ms Yakubu was murdered at Shehu Shagari College of Education on Thursday morning for allegedly posting comments that blasphemed Prophet Mohammed. The violence has elicited widespread uproar and condemnation, with Catholic priest Matthew Kukah and Sultan of Sokoto calling on authorities to immediately bring the killers to book.
This isn’t the first time Atiku is caving in on issues involving his religion which many people, especially southern Christians who see him as a moderate statesman expect him to comment on. During the Isa Pantami saga, the Peoples Democratic Party presidential aspirant maintained grave silence despite calls for his reaction.
His recent action is already generating reactions but the Adamawa state born politician prefers to please few of the extremists he believe will vote for him than stand with humanity. He’s carrying on like nothing happened, posting his campaign activities. (Journalist101)
