A Muslim man in northern Nigeria has been killed by a mob for alleged blasphemy.
Usman Buda, who worked as a butcher at the Sokoto city abattoir, “was mobbed and attacked by some Muslim faithful [who] inflicted serious injuries on him”, Sokoto state police spokesman Ahmad Rufa’i is quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.
When the police arrived on the scene, “the mob escaped and left the victim unconscious”, he added, the Premium Times reports.
Mr Buda was taken for treatment by police when they went to rescue him but his death was confirmed at the hospital.
The authorities are now looking for the alleged perpetrators.
AFP reports that Mr Buda was killed after an argument over some child beggars who had asked for money. It quotes a witness as saying that he got embroiled in a row after he disapproved of the children. He then made the alleged blasphemous remarks about the Prophet Muhammad.
In response, Sokoto state Governor Ahmed Aliyu “called on the people of the state to remain calm and law-abiding at all times”, but he added that people should not do anything that is capable of degrading the personality of the Prophet Muhammad.
In May last year, a female student was attacked by Muslim students at her college in Sokoto, who killed her and set her body alight. She had been accused of blaspheming.