Christians in Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north have demanded authorities do more to protect them after a woman was stabbed over an alleged religious dispute. President Mohammadu Buhari has pleaded for religious tolerance.
Nigerian authorities said 74-year-old Bridget Abahime, an ethnic Igbo trader and wife of a pastor, was “mobbed and extra-judicially murdered” on Thursday at a market in Kano, Nigeria’s largest northern city.
Following reports that the woman was killed over a perceived insult on Prophet Muhammad, the northern chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria said police are not doing enough to protect Christians and warned Saturday of a “looming religious crisis.”
Such attacks have historically led to retaliations and sectarian violence.
“This barbarism must stop now,” said the association’s spokesman, Rev. John Hayab. He accused police of trying to cover up the killing.
Nigeria’s national police chief Solomon Arase said Saturday that two suspects had been arrested, and appealed for calm on all sides. He added security forces were being deployed to Kano—the site of previous sectarian clashes—to prevent the incident from “degenerating into a major security threat.”
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