KWARA: MURIC accuses police of foot dragging over killing of Muslim student in hijab protest
By BASHIR ADEFAKA
The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has accused Kwara State Police Command of foot-dragging, for failing to effect any arrest 48 hours after a Muslim student, Habeeb Idris, of Oyun Baptist Grammar School, Ijagbo, Kwara State, was shot dead during a protest against hijab ban and persecution by the school.
Idris was killed while four other students sustained varied degrees of injuries on Thursday 3 February, 2022 in a circumstance the human rights organisation described as a condemnable.
According to group, the struggle for hijab has entered another phase with the killing of a Muslim protester.
MURIC has insisted on justice for Habeeb Idris.
The director of the faith-based human rights advocacy group, Professor Ishaq Akintola, made the allegation against the police, of foot-dragging over the killing, in a statement in Lagos on Saturday, 5 February, 2022.
The statement reads: “One of the four students who were injured during the protest over use of hijab at the Baptist High School, Ijagbo in Oyun Local Government of Kwara State, has died. The twenty year old Muslim student, Habeeb Idris, was fatally shot on Thursday, 3rd February, 2022.
“Three other students sustained varied degrees of injuries as a result of a brutal attack launched by hoodlums allegedly hired by the school authorities and the Kwara State branch of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) who insisted that no Muslim girl would be allowed to use hijab in the school.
“But efforts to get the Kwara State Police Command to arrest the attackers proved abortive yesterday, Friday, 4th February, 2022. Although students who sustained injuries were at the command yesterday to lodge complaints and identify their attackers, the police showed no readiness to follow them.
“We are greatly disappointed by the lackadaisical attitude exhibited by the police in Kwara State. Why is the police developing cold feet on this case. This is culpable homicide for crying out loud. Habeeb must not die in vain. The police must produce his killers. This case cannot be swept under the carpet. There must be consequences for thuggery and hooliganism and the use of dangerous weapons against innocent students.
“Habeeb Idris paid the supreme sacrifice in the struggle for the actualisation of Allah-given fundamental human rights of female Muslim students to use hijab. His death signals another landmark in the history of the civil rights struggles by Yoruba Muslims. Ours is a long struggle against the tyranny of agents of neo-imperialism. We have been politically marginalised, economically oppressed and socially downpressed, now we are being killed.
“To add salt to injury, the Kwara Police Command is reluctant to take action. MURIC suspects complicity and the use of undue influence on the part of CAN Kwara chapter and the authorities of Baptist High School, Oyun. Those who refused to obey the state government’s circular on approval of hijab are capable of doing anything.
“Impunity is being carried too far. We demand the immediate arrest, detention and prosecution of the culprits. The rule of law must be allowed to prevail. Nigerian Muslims are on the tiptoes of expectation. Kwara Police Command must produce the killers of Habeeb within the shortest time possible. Muslims are running out of patience.”
