We received with a shock the news of the sentence passed against our member and President, Humanist Association of Nigeria, Comrade Mubarak Bala. Comrade Bala was arrested and detained since April 2020 without trial for blaspheming against the prophet of Islam, Mohammed. We are surprised that he was speedily tried recently and sentenced to 24 years imprisonment by Justice Farouk Lawan of Kano High Court 4 after pleading guilty to the charges levelled against him. We want to reiterate that Comrade Bala committed no crime against the Nigerian state, and he does not deserve this violation of his fundamental human right. The 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended, granted Comrade Bala both the freedom of speech and freedom of conscience to practice or reject any religion he wishes. When he deconverted from Islam, he was forcefully confined to a psychiatric home and treated as a schizophrenic patient in 2014. The state did not investigate and punish this gross medical misconduct but went on to arrest Mubarak, who never incited any act of violence nor perpetuated it against anyone. We should note that Nigeria is constitutionally a secular state. We, therefore, advise the judiciary not to allow itself to be used in turning Nigeria into an Islamic theocracy. Nigeria is a melting pot of numerous diversity, and the law is meant to guarantee the safety of all, especially minorities. We atheists endure different types of criticism, namecalling and insults against us daily by religious Nigerians, but we have never harmed anyone for doing so against us. We also expect to be treated with dignity and respect when we criticise religions. Society only grows through conflicts of ideas with superior ones negating inferior ones; we do not expect Nigeria to be a society of one shade of ideas.
While we await the advice of Mubarak’s legal team, we believe that the judgement will be appealed. We urge the judges of the higher courts to uphold the honour of the judiciary by protecting Mubarak’s constitutional rights of conscience and free speech. We also urge the police to leave Mubarak alone and face the people threatening his life publicly. Several people of supposed Muslim background have made several open death threats to Comrade Bala, but none have been arrested, let alone tried. We urge you to go after them to protect the right of Nigerians to free speech.
Source: Atheists Society of Nigeria
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