Nigerian Police Arrest Humanist Leader Mubarak Bala for Alleged “Blasphemy”
While the police authorities in Kano have confirmed that Nigerian Humanist Mubarak Bala is in their custody, they have not granted him access to a lawyer. He has been held incommunicado. The police arrested Mubarak in Kaduna three days ago following a complaint of insulting prophet Muhammad that some lawyers in Kano filed at the State Police Command.
Mubarak was detained in Kaduna for a night before being transferred to Kano two days ago. Since taken to Kano, the police authorities have not allowed him to see his lawyer. The police authorities have been blocking efforts to understand the details of the complaint. This is in breach of Mubarak’s human rights.
There are reports that Mubarak is being beaten and tortured while in detention. There are also concerns over the state of his health, especially with the outbreak of a strange disease and the coronavirus in Kano. In the last 48 hours, there has been no independent confirmation that Mubarak is alive and well, there is no confirmation that he is not being maltreated and that his rights are not being violated. Given the nature of the allegation, there are serious concerns over Mubarak’s health. According to family sources, Mubarak is hypertensive. Many people are worried that Mubarak could be killed while in detention given the several death threats that he has received.
Please kindly help draw the attention of the Nigerian authorities to the case of Mubarak. Ask the police authorities to grant Mubarak access to his lawyer today.
Urge the police to charge him in court formally or release him unconditionally.
Leo Igwe (born July 26, 1970) is a Nigerian human rights advocate and humanist. Igwe is a former Western and Southern African representative of the International Humanist and Ethical Union, and has specialized in campaigning against and documenting the impacts of child witchcraft accusations. He holds a Ph.D from the Bayreuth International School of African Studies at the University of Bayreuth in Germany, having earned a graduate degree in Philosophy from the University of Calabar in Nigeria. Igwe’s human rights advocacy has brought him into conflict with high-profile witchcraft believers, such as Liberty Foundation Gospel Ministries, because of his criticism of what he describes as their role in the violence and child abandonment that sometimes result from accusations of witchcraft. His human rights fieldwork has led to his arrest on several occasions in Nigeria. Igwe has held leadership roles in the Nigerian Humanist Movement, Atheist Alliance International, and the Center For Inquiry—Nigeria. In 2012, Igwe was appointed as a Research Fellow of the James Randi Educational Foundation, where he continues working toward the goal of responding to what he sees as the deleterious effects of superstition, advancing skepticism throughout Africa and around the world. In 2014, Igwe was chosen as a laureate of the International Academy of Humanism and in 2017 received the Distinguished Services to Humanism Award from the International Humanist and Ethical Union.
Igwe was raised in southeastern Nigeria, and describes his household as being strictly Catholic in the midst of a “highly superstitious community,” according to an interview in the Gold Coast Bulletin.[1] At age twelve, Igwe entered the seminary, beginning to study for the Catholic priesthood, but later was confused by conflicting beliefs between Christian theology and the beliefs in witches and wizards that are “entrenched in Nigerian society.”[1] After a period of research and internal conflict due to doubts about the “odd blend of tribalism and fundamentalist Christianity he believes is stunting African development,” a 24-year-old Igwe resigned from the seminary and relocated to Ibadan, Nigeria
