A mob lynched a Muslim man in a northern Nigerian town on Sunday accusing him of blaspheming the Prophet Muhammad, local police and several residents said.
Usman Buda, a butcher working in the slaughterhouses in the city of Sokoto, “was lynched and attacked by Muslim worshipers who inflicted serious injuries on him”, local police spokesman Ahmad Rufa’i said on Sunday evening. .
The attackers fled when police arrived at the scene and Mr Buda was taken to hospital, where he was later confirmed dead, Mr Rufa’i added.
Blasphemy is punishable by death under Islamic law, or Sharia, which applies alongside common law in a dozen states in northern Nigeria where the majority of the population is Muslim.
In recent years, the death penalty has rarely been applied. However, in several cases, the defendants were killed by mobs without going through legal process.
Mr Buda, a Salafist Muslim, was stoned and beaten to death by his colleagues following an argument, fellow butcher Isa Danhili told AFP.
“It all started when young beggars came to ask for alms in the name of Allah and the Prophet,” he told AFP.
When Mr Buda disapproved of child begging, a heated argument broke out, he added. The butcher became emotional and made “statements” that his colleagues deemed insulting to the Prophet and “rushed at him with stones and sticks”, Mr Danhili said.
Video of the attack, shared widely on social media, shows a man in a bloodied sleeveless shirt staggering and falling as a crowd threw rocks at him.
In the background, a voice can be heard shouting “Kill him!” in Hausa, the most widely spoken language in northern Nigeria.
Sunday’s lynching came a year after a Christian woman was stoned to death in Sokoto on similar charges.
In May 2022, a Christian student at Shehu Shagari College in Sokoto was stoned to death and her body burned by a mob of students after she posted a message on social media they deemed insulting to the Prophet.