Christian Youth Corps Volunteer Killed in Nigeria’s Adamawa State
BREAKING NEWS FROM ABUJA, NIGERIA, SEPTEMBER 2, 2022 (Morning Star News) The death of a Christian youth service corps member serving in Yola, northeast Nigeria, on August 26 is being investigated as a possible hate crime.
Five guys armed with machetes broke into Samaila Sabo Awudu’s room at the NYSC barracks in Adamawa state’s capital around 1:30 in the morning. He was 28.
Awudu, a native of Taraba state, was reportedly volunteering with the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in Yola at the Elkanemi College of Islamic Theology as part of Nigeria’s mandatory one-year national development service program.
Numerous reports indicate that the assailants of Awudu first locked the doors of the other corps members before attacking him with machetes and abandoning him for dead.
According to a text message supplied to Morning Star News by local resident Benita John, who attended the burial, Awudu’s brother Ephraim Haruna Sabo informed mourners at the family property in Gindin Dorowa, Wukari County, Taraba state last week that corps members had alerted family members about the incident.
Sabo reportedly told sympathizers, “We were told by some of his colleagues, corps members, that a gang of five armed Muslims assaulted him when they broke into his house at the NYSC lodge in Yola and slashed him with machetes.” This was reported by John. Police officers who responded to the scene transported him to the Federal Medical Centre in Yola, where he later died.
Sabo said that Awudu had earned his biochemistry degree from the Federal University in Wukari, Taraba state.
In his eulogy, the pastor of the Christian Reformed Church in Nigeria (CRC-N) in Gindin Dorowa, Rev. Philip Agbu, said that Awudu was a dedicated member of the church and that he “lived an excellent life, worthy of emulation.”
At his funeral, Awudu’s brother Sabo spoke of how calm and peaceful he was.
Sabo added that Awudu’s life was cut short just as his family was beginning to look up to him for support after he “had experienced the hardships of growing up and learning.” No doubt, his death will have a terrible impact on his loved ones and the local Christian community.
Director of the National Youth Service Corps in Adamawa, Jingi Denis, gave a speech to the burial crowd. Denis remarked that Awudu’s passing was “a loss to the whole country.” It’s tragic, and the inquiry into what motivated the attack on him is still in its early stages.
Suleiman Ngoruje, superintendent of police of the Adamawa State Police Command, said in a statement on Monday (Aug. 29) that officers are seeking for the killers.
In a statement released on Sunday (August 28), Danjuma Usman Shiddi, a member of Nigeria’s parliament, the National Assembly, said, “We are engaging with the relevant security services and the criminal justice administration players to ensure justice for the deceased, his immediate family, our community and constituents.”
According to Open Doors’ 2022 World Watch List report, from October 1, 2020 through September 30, 2021, 4,650 Christians were killed because of their beliefs in Nigeria, making it the country with the highest number of Christian deaths worldwide. More than 2,500 Christians were abducted in Nigeria, the largest number in the World, according to the World Watch List (WWL), up from 990 the year before.
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