Contrary to the state government version of an attack in north-western Nigeria on 22 August, a Christian at the school where Muslim students killed eight people said all the victims were Christians.
According to another Christian student, the Christian student at Abdu Gusau Polytechnic, in Talata Mafara, Zamfara state, who was said to have triggered the attack by blaspheming, was falsely accused. ‘The claim that our colleague blasphemed Muhammad is not true’, he said of the convert, who was badly beaten and left for dead. ‘He has been the target of Muslims here, as they believe that anyone who leaves Islam must be killed.
‘When the Muslim mob left thinking they had killed him, one of us assisted by moving him to the hospital in town’, he said (with ‘us’ referring to Christian students at the school). ‘However, when these Muslim students heard that our colleague was still alive and had been moved to the hospital, they rushed to the hospital with the intent to kill him. But, when they could not find him there, they rushed to the house were other Christian students were staying and burned eight of them alive.’
