Nigerian officials scrambled to calm religious tensions after Muslims in Kano state killed a Christian pastor’s wife on a baseless ‘blasphemy’ charge on 2 June.
Bridget Agbahime, a kitchen utensil vendor at Kano city’s Kofar Wambai Market, politely asked a Muslim engaged in ritual Islamic cleansing, identified as Alhaji Dauda, to move his ritual from her shop front. She had had similar conflicts with him before.
Bridget and her husband, Pastor Mike Agbahime of Deeper Life Bible Church in Kano, later met with the market landlord about the persistent problem, when Dauda and other Muslims returned and began chanting that she must die for blasphemy. The landlord pleaded for them to return later to talk about it, but they began stoning him, and he fled.
Dauda and the mob accused Bridget of blasphemy against Muhammad. Pastor Agbahime tried in vain to protect her. The assailants overpowered the few policemen present, and Bridget knelt and began to pray before she was beaten and clubbed to death. The mob killed her before the arrival of the reinforcements that saved the pastor from being killed as well.
