A Nigerian university student who converted from Islam to Christianity has been arrested by state security forces, as has the man who introduced her to Christianity, according to reports in mid-January.
Nabila Umar Sanda, 19, is a student at Bingham University in Karu, which is owned by one of Nigeria’s major churches. While studying there, she became friends with Simput Dafup, a Christian, who, once she expressed an interest in Christianity, invited her to meet a local church leader, Jeremiah Datim.
House stormed
Datim explained to the press that, after Nabila decided to become a Christian, he immediately made contact with the local Islamic organisation, as has become customary. Datim then met with a local Islamic leader, who made contact with Nabila’s parents. Later that day, Datim said detectives from the Department of state Security Services (DSS): ‘stormed my house, assaulted my wife, daughter and eight-month-old baby, and took Nabila away’. Her friend, Simput Dafup, was also arrested, and both are still being held in an unknown location.
Datim said that Nigeria’s Constitution ‘guarantees the right to anyone to propagate his faith and the right to also practise any religion of one’s choice’.
‘After I met Miss Nabila for the first time … I interacted with her and asked her a lot of questions about both the Christian faith and Islamic faith. Nabila clearly said that she had made up her mind to join the Christian faith and was willing to be a Christian no matter what obstacles were placed on her way.
‘I understand that her father has said he has all the “connections” in this country to deal with me, Dafup and any other person found to have been involved in the conversion of his daughter to Christianity, and that he will ensure that we rot in jail.’
Datim stated that they had not breached any Nigerian laws. And he reiterated that Nabila had not been brainwashed, as reported by her father, and challenged the DSS ‘to produce Nabila and put us side by side so they can ask her if she was forcefully converted to Christianity, or abducted, or brainwashed.’
