Kano | Thursday
ANGRY Muslims beat to death a Christian truck driver who accidentally reversed his lorry over a copy of the Koran, the Muslim holy book, witnesses said on Wednesday.
The 42-year-old ethnic Igbo driver, locally known by the nickname of Saint Moritz, was reversing in a well-known fruit market in the northern city of Kano when he ran his truck into a Koranic study group, said market trader Sa’idu Nasiru.
As they fled, the Koranic students dropped a copy of the Muslim holy book and the driver reversed over it.
The Muslims pulled the man out of the vehicle and beat him up. He was taken to a police station for his safety but was pulled out by a mob and killed, said another witness, Danlami Habibu.
Kano State Police Commissioner Yakubu Bello confirmed the killing and said that five people had been arrested over the incident.
It is the second time in five years that a Christian has been killed in Kano, the largest city in mainly Muslim northern Nigeria, for allegedly blaspheming the Koran.
In December 1996, a Christian trader, Gideon Akaluka, was seized from jail and beheaded by a Muslim group for allegedly tearing pages out of the Koran.
His head was stuck on a pike and paraded through the streets. – AFP