NIGERIA – Christian teacher clubbed to death
28/03/07
Students kill her for allegedly 'desecrating' Quran
Christianah Oluwatoyin Oluwasesin – "a touching Christian example"
She was happy that after the final day of exams, she would be joining her husband in their hometown of Abeokuta, in the south-west state of Ogun.
The high school teacher's joyous mood had been noted not only that day but the previous one, as she was seen taking pictures and exchanging pleasantries with friends and colleagues.
Soon her happiness would be cut short.
Muslim students at the school, along with Islamic extremists from outside, murdered Christianah on 21 March over claims that she desecrated the Quran.
They beat, stoned, and clubbed her to death, then burned her corpse.
Christianah was a supervisor that day of a final exam on Islamic Religious knowledge, so she was responsible for ensuring that students kept to the rules and to prevent mischief in the hall, which had become common among cheating students, said Aluke Musa Yila, a fellow teacher at the school.
Musa reported that Christianah had collected papers, books and bags before the exam in the all-girls class, in accordance with school procedures to prevent cheating, and dropped the materials in front of the class.
Not aware
While noting that Christianah was not aware the belongings included a Quran, a local newspaper reported she tossed the belongings outside the classroom.
But Musa, who rushed into the classroom soon after students began shouting, told reporters that Christianah had dropped the belongings in front of the class.
"Usually such items are returned to every student as each turns in her answer script," Musa said.
"Soon after the bags were dropped in front of the class, one of the girls in the class began to cry.
"She told her colleagues that she had a copy of the Quran in her bag and that Christianah had touched the bag, thereby desecrating the Quran, as she was a Christian."
Soon after the student raised this alarm, other students in class began to shout "Allahu Akbar [God is most great]."
"It was at this point that I was attracted to the riotous scene in that class, and I then rushed there," said Musa, who said he witnessed the murder of Christianah by the Muslim students and extremists.
"How could a teacher know there was a copy of the Quran in a student's bag if this was not pointed out to her?"
Raucous confusion
He notified Malam Baba Musa, patron of the Muslim Students' Society at the school.
The MSS patron, along with three other school staff, went to the classroom to try to bring calm, Aluke Musa said.
In the raucous confusion, he managed to rush Christianah out of class to the headmaster's office.
"The headmaster left Christianah and me in his office and also went there to calm down the Muslim students," he said.
"Knowing that the students may soon come to this office, I pushed Christianah into the bathroom in this office and then locked up the office."
By the time he had rejoined the principal and other staff members, he said, the entire school was engulfed in an uproar.
Muslim extremists from outside the school rushed in to join in the unrest.
Aluke Musa Yila, a fellow teacher at the school, witnessed the murder
"When we could not give in by releasing Christianah to them, they started stoning us."
Pandemonium prevented school or law enforcement officials getting Christianah out of the school, he said.
"Whilst we were thinking of ways to take Christianah out of the school, the Muslims broke into the headteacher's office and dragged her out," he said.
The headteacher rushed there to save her as they were clubbing her with an iron on the head and blood was gushing out of her head.
"He was pleading with them not to kill her, but they insisted she must be killed."
Musa said the Muslims overcame efforts by the headteacher and another teacher identified only as Kabiru, to protect Christianah.
"The headteacher succeeded in getting Christianah up to the school gate," he said.
"There was a house near the gate, and he dragged her into the house, but the rioting Muslims went into the house and dragged her out again.
This time, they clubbed her to death, brought old mats and placed soil on her corpse, and then burned the body."
Musa said he was baffled that throughout the unrest, the copy of the Quran supposed to have been desecrated was never seen, nor was it produced by the offended student.
"Whether the Quran was actually in the bag of that student, nobody knows," he said.
Attempts by at least four policemen to quell the unrest had failed as they had been forced to retreat, Musa said.
Car, buildings torched
"The Muslims smashed the car of Christianah, which was parked in the car park attached to the building housing the library, office and some classrooms," he said.
"Her car was set on fire, and soon the entire building went up in flames."
Along with Christianah's car, the school library, and other offices near the car park were all burned, he said.
When the fire brigade arrived, he said, Muslims prevented firemen from coming into the school by throwing stones at them.
Having killed Christianah, the extremists turned their attention to Musa, who said he had been advised to leave and had done so in time.
When they realised he had eluded them, the extremists set his motorbike on fire.
The Government Secondary School of Gandu has about 4,000 students, about 10 per cent of whom are Christian, Musa said.
The school has been closed since the incident.
Headteacher Mallam Mohammed Saddique, who was injured in the melee, could not be reached for comment, but Deputy Headteacher Hajiya Hadiza Ali Gombe told reporters the situation had been brought under control.
"There is no more problem," she said, declining to speak further on the issue.
All secondary schools in the Gombe area have been shut down indefinitely to avert a spread of the crisis, according to news reports.
Authorities have arrested at least 12 students involved in the killing, according to Voice of America.
A five-member committee appointed by the state to investigate the incident is due to present findings in two weeks' time.
In February 2006 in the neighbouring state of Bauchi, at least 20 Christians were killed and two churches were burned down by Muslims furious that a Christian secondary school teacher had tried to confiscate a Quran from a student who was reading it during class.
Church in mourning
Asked whether there had been any past misunderstandings between Christianah and her Muslim colleagues or students, Musa said, "She never had any problem with any Muslim, whether a teacher or a student, in the three years she was in this school," he said.
The killing of Christianah shocked the Christian community in Gombe and has left her church devastated.
At Evangel Chapel's morning worship service on Sunday 25 March, Elder Robert Simon said during a sermon that such trials "are the real tests for our Christian faith, and our desire to follow Jesus lies in such difficult times."
With the church's regular preaching pastor travelling with the Oluwasesin family to her hometown of Abeokuta for her burial, Simon said he understood how congregants were feeling.
"There are times you even don't find God meaningful to you – you even ask questions like, 'Where was God when this happened?'" he said.
"God cannot be found anywhere else, because he is always there for us.
"It is Satan who makes God not to be meaningful to us, so that we go looking elsewhere for alternatives to God."
Simon said Christianah was working to "undo the kingdom of darkness," as she was fighting corruption in the education system.
"That is why we suffer persecution," he said. "If Satan knows you have been planted to undo his work, he will [try to] kill you.
"Christianah did not live her life for the world but as an agent of the Kingdom, working for righteousness. That is the reason she was killed."
Andrew Osakue, also an elder at Evangel Chapel, told reporters, "she was like a flash in the pan. She came to this church barely four years ago.
"She was a touching example as to how a Christian should be."
Christianah was a Sunday school teacher and a member of her church's prayer team.
She and her husband had gone to Gombe on a one-year mandatory National Youth Service Scheme of the Nigerian government.
After the service year, in which both of them excelled, they were employed by the Gombe state government, she as a teacher and he as a laboratory technician at a hospital in town.
Christianah was the mother of two children.
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