A female Christian in Nigeria, Rhoda Ya’u Jatau, is currently undergoing trial for allegedly blaspheming Islam, Morning Star News is reporting
Rhoda, 45, was arrested in May in Bauchi State, North East region, following a WhatsApp message she received from Ghana condemning the violent killing of another Nigerian Christian lady, Deborah Yakubu, earlier in the year.
Deborah, a 200 level student of Shehu Shagari College of Education, was killed on May 12 after she was falsely accused of blasphemy.
Rhoda reportedly shared the message condemning Deborah’s murder with her colleagues in Warji Local Government Area. However, when some Muslims saw the message, they plotted to kill her for alleged blasphemy. They reportedly invaded her house but the Department of State Security (DSS), Nigeria’s secret police, arrested her.
Rhoda, a health worker with Warji Council, was detained incommunicado on May 20 without charges until two weeks after.
Speaking on the charges, her lawyer, Joshua Nasara, said she was accused of “posting a video that disparages Allah, Muhammad (the prophet of Islam), his parents and the entire Muslim community to a WtatsApp group of the Primary Healthcare Authority of Warji Local Government Area, allegedly “with the intent to cause religious crisis.”
The charges also said Rhoda therefore violated Sections 114, 210 of the Penal Code Law and Section 24 subsection 1b (i) of Cybercrime Prohibition Prevention Act 2015.
In a press statement, Nasara, said “Ever since her arrest, Mrs Jatau has been detained in prison over false accusation of blasphemy, inciting public disturbance, exciting contempt of religious creed and cyber-stalking.
He said moves to bail Rhoda have been repeatedly “frustrated and denied by government authorities and leaders of Islamic groups in the state.”
According to him, an application was filed on July 20 to grant her bail after being held for the legal maximum period of two months without trial but that it was not assigned to a judge until July 26, six days later. He said by then the judges had embarked on vacation.
“It was in August that the application was reassigned to a vacation judge who heard it for the first time on August 11,” the lawyer said.