Published By Olukayode Idowu
The Muslim Media Practitioners of Nigeria (MMPN) has condemned in strong terms the killing of an innocent pregnant woman, Harirah Jibril, 32, along with her four children in Anambra State, by suspected members of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
IPOB in a statement on Friday by its Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, had distanced itself from the killing. The group who also condemned condemned the ‘abominable” act, said that “in Igboland, it is an abomination to kill a pregnant woman. The perpetrators of the heinous crime are certainly not IPOB and could never have been”.
Emma Powerful in the statement, added that: “We have always said it that the terrorists were imported into Biafra land to commit the ongoing atrocities all in an attempt to discredit our struggle, demonise IPOB and proscribe it, then lobby and bribe Britain to tag us a terror group with the hope to stop our match to freedom.”
The MMPN, in its statement signed by its National President, Alhaji Abdur-Rahman Balogun described the killing of the woman and her four children, all of Northern extraction on Sunday 22nd May 2022 as barbaric, brutish and capable of inciting ethnic and religious violence across the country.
The association therefore joined other notable groups and individuals who have condemned the act, called on security agencies to fish out, arrest and prosecute perpetrators of the heinous act in the interest of justice.
MMPN tasked all men of conscience , human and women rights critics and in particular the British Government and United Nations to condemn the ugly incident with the same energy they condemned other killings in Nigeria especially in the North.
Balogun said Allah says in Qur’an 4 verse 93: “Whoever kills a believer deliberately, the penalty for him is Hell, where he will remain forever. And God will be angry with him, and will curse him, and will prepare for him a terrible punishment.-Quran, An-Nisa (The Women) [4]:93
Harira remains murdered along with her four children were buried in Awka on Wednesday.
The husband of the deceased , Jibril, had given the name of his wife as Harira Jibril, 32, and those of the four children as Fatima, 9; Khadijah, 7; Hadiza, 5; and Zaituna, 2. He said, “They were coming back home after she visited her sister who was living in the nearby town. She and the four children were all wearing hijabs; that was why the gunmen targeted them.”