By KEMI KASUMU
Habeeb Idris, a Muslim schoolboy gruesomely killed by thugs allegedly hired by Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), in collaboration with authorities of Oyun Baptist Grammar School, Ijagbo, Kwara State, has been laid to rest, but the bitterness and anger over his unjust murder persist.
Some Muslims ventilated their anger with some media underreporting and trivialising the gruesome’ murder of the innocent Muslim schoolboy and demanded justice for him and other Muslim students persecuted in the school.
Habeeb Idris, a Muslim student of the government-owned school in the predominantly Muslim state of Kwara, was shot dead with many others sustaining injuries of varied degrees while protesting against the hostility of Christian Association of Nigeria using the government, not only to ban female Muslim students wearing hijab from entering the school thereby denying them their fundamental human rights to education but also, to persecute them as well.
The DEFENDER reports that the hostilities of some Christian extremists under the aegis of Christian Association of Nigeria got to their pick when they finally produced a martyr killing the priming child, Habeeb Idris, in his pool of blood and up till now, there has been no sign that Kwara State Government and the Nigeria Police Force cared.
This was as Islamic human rights group, Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), Saturday accused the Kwara State Command of the Nigerian Police Force of foot-dragging over the killing, for failing to make any arrest after 48 hours of occurrence.
The anger of the Muslim Ummah has been encapsulated in a report by Muslim News, which witnessed the sorrowful event of the burial of the young martyr on Saturday 5 February, 2022 amidst calls for justice by members of the Nigerian Muslim Ummah, Muslim Ummah of South West Nigeria (MUSWEN) and particularly the Kwara State Muslim Elders.
“While some media reported that no one died, others used the term ‘feared dead’. However, we at ‘Muslim News Nigeria’ didn’t only confirm but attended the burial of Habeeb Idris, who was killed unjustly by thugs allegedly hired by Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN in conjunction with the management of Oyun Baptist High School, Ijagbo to disrupt peaceful protest organised by students to demand their right to use Hijab. He was buried on Friday, February 4, at Lafiagi town, in Kwara State. May Allah grant him Jannatul Firdaus and accept him as Martyr. Ameen,” it was reported.
A source that spoke to The DEFENDER about the sad incident was not happy that the same Nigerian media, especially as dominated by Journalists of South extractions and of Christian faith, which had almost collapsed the skies on everybody in Nigeria because of another alleged sad ritual killing of Timothy Adegoke in an ile-Ife hotel room, have continued to maintain silence over the very sad brutal, wicked killing of the Kwara schoolboy, Habeeb Idris.
“Does it not occur to you that something is wrong with Kwara State Government whose responsibility it is to call the security agencies to action has continued to remain docile? would appreciate the government for legalising using the use of hijab in all public schools in the state but, one would however need to ask why the government failed to give bite when the likes of Oyun Baptist Grammar School Ijagbo not just disregard the law permitting hijab but also going ahead to ban, persecute students wearing it and still go a step further to kill a would-be future leader like Habeeb Idris by the bullets and got several others injured for protesting against the evils,” he said.
In the meantime, the state government has shut Oyun Baptist Grammar School, Ijagbo, which a Muslim Media Watch Group (MMWG) source commended but noted that “the government should have shutdown the school immediately it learnt about its breach of the law permitting the use of hijab. Perhaps the heavy casualty would not have happened.”
Another angered source in Ilorin has, however, demanded that Oyun Baptist Grammar School, Ijagbo, Kwara shutdown be permanent.
