Former Vice president and a presidential aspirant, Atiku Abubakar has deleted a post he made on his Facebook and Twitter handles condemning the killing of Deborah Samuel, a 200-level student of Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto State, who was burnt on Thursday.
The student was beaten to a pulp and burnt alive by male Muslim students who accused her of insulting Prophet Muhammed via a WhatsApp platform.
The school authority has shut down academic activities indefinitely as tension gripped residents of the area.
Mr Atiku’s posts around 10:20 p.m. Thursday were deleted less than an hour later. Both had garnered thousands of reactions within minutes, according to screenshots taken by JomogNews.
Most of the comments were from fundamentalists who warned the politician to stay away from condemning the murder of the Christian student.
“There can not be a justification for such gruesome murder. Deborah Yakubu was murdered, and all those behind her death must be brought to justice,” Mr Atiku said. “My condolences to her family and friends.”
A spokesman for Mr Abubkar did not return a request seeking comments about why he took down the post on Facebook.
The former vice-president didn’t delete a similar message that he posted on Twitter until much later, indicating that he might have seen a difference between Facebook and Twitter users on the sensitive development.
Ms Samuel was murdered at Shehu Shagari College of Education on Thursday morning for allegedly posting comments that blasphemed Prophet Mohammed. The violence has elicited widespread uproar and condemnation, with Catholic priest Matthew Kukah and Sultan of Sokoto calling on authorities to immediately bring the killers to book.
Mr Abubakar is from northern Adamawa state, but continues to receive support across the country, especially amongst southern Christians who see him as a moderate statesman.
