Muslim mob has allegedly killed a pastor identified as Reverend Yohanna Shuaibu in Massu, a village in the Sumaila Local Government Area of Kano State
To: Hausa Christian Foundation. Kano Dear friends,
Re: Murder of Rev Shuaibu in Kano
I am writing to express our deepest sympathies following the brutal murder of Rev. Yohanna Shuaibu by an islamic mob in Kano. The horrific killing of this Christian pastor is another sordid illustration of Islamic extremism, hatred and intolerance in the region. Unfortunately, the Gov. Ganduje-led islamist government has not helped matters. His government has continued to enable the oppression and persecution with impunity of minority religious and belief groups in the state.
Kano state government has expressly failed in its duty and responsibility to protect the rights, lives and property of non Muslims including Christians, and Humanists. The government has consistently denied non Muslims their rights to freedom of religion or belief and freedom of expression.
Humanists in Kano and other parts of Nigeria stand with the Hausa Christian Foundation at this difficult moment. Humanists will continue to campaign for the equal rights of all Nigerians including their rights to freely express, renounce or change their faith or belief. Our thoughts are with the family of Rev Shuaibu and other victims of Islamic violence, and religious bloodletting in Kano state.
Leo Igwe Ph.D Religious Studies Bayreuth. Chair Board of Trustees, Humanist Association of Nigeria
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
