By Aisha Rimi
Two days before she died, I kept feeling a sense of dread, but I was afraid to tell her so I wouldn’t alarm her,” said Aliyu Muhammad, who on Sunday found the ashes body of his wife Ummulkhairi in the street, after a mob falsely accused her of child kidnapping.
Aliyu spoke to the BBC a day after a video circulated widely on social media showing a woman being killed and set on fire in Maraban Jos, Kaduna State, northern Nigeria.
The man, who works as a mechanic, told the BBC that he said goodbye to his wife that morning: “When I was leaving, she told me they had a preaching event at Malama Mardiyya’s school,” an Islamiyya school in the town, while he headed to work.
That was the last time the couple saw each other. They had been married for 14 years and had four children, two boys and two girls.
He said that at about 11am he received a call saying his wife was at the community head’s house, after she had been detained on suspicion of being a child kidnapper.
Although Aliyu sent a friend to the community head’s house, a crowd had already gathered at the gate demanding she be handed over to them to be punished.
“We had organized a Sallah preaching program, where we held 11 sermons before postponing, and then we arranged to hold this preaching event,” said Jamilu Tahir, head of the Marabar Jos youth preaching committee.
The cleric, who said the deceased was his student, said she set out for the preaching event after other women in her family had gone ahead.
“When she got to the area, she asked where the preaching was taking place (at Malama Saliha’s school) because there are two schools, Malama Saliha’s school and Malama Mardiyya’s school.”
He said the people she asked told her the preaching was at Malama Mardiyya’s school.
According to Malam Tahir, a boy offered to guide the deceased to Malama Mardiyya’s school, but a woman nearby objected.
She said: “It is these veiled women who are the child kidnappers, and then people started shouting, saying she is a child kidnapper,” Tahir said.
She was then taken to the community head’s house, before later being taken to the police station.
The deceased’s husband told the BBC that it was the DPO who brought her out of the police station, which allowed the crowd to lynch her.
“The DPO grabbed her, removed her hijab, pushed her into the street, and then turned around and went back into his office,” said Ummulkhairi’s husband.
Sulaiman Isah, the man who tried to save Ummulkhairi’s life and helped take her to the police station, also confirmed that “it was the DPO who handed her over to the crowd.”
The BBC contacted the police for their response to the allegation.
Police spokesman Mansir Hassan said the crowd overpowered the police and seized her.
He denied the allegation, saying: “There is no way the DPO would hand the woman over to the people.”
“They forced their way in and took her by force, and investigations are still ongoing,” DSP Hassan said.
The police force also said suspects linked to the killing of the woman have now been arrested.
‘My wife was a good person’ – Husband of the deceased
Aliyu Muhammad said his wife was a good person: “She was a teacher, everyone knew her, if you saw her leave my house it would be to go to a sermon or to a wedding.”
“Even in a dream,” he never imagined she would face such an accusation, Aliyu said.
He said that when he arrived at the scene where his wife was killed, it felt “like a dream.”
“When I got there I saw her body in the street. I couldn’t even hold myself together.”
Aliyu, speaking to the BBC in a voice filled with grief, said his wife was killed by the mob.
In Nigeria, there is often a lack of public confidence that authorities will punish offenders, with a widespread belief that ‘any criminal who ends up with the police will go free’, which is not always the case.
Residents of the town, who according to reports have been dealing with a spate of child kidnappings recently, insisted on taking action against the woman, despite there being no evidence that she was a child kidnapper.
