Carpenter |
There was confusion in some parts of Kakuri, in Kaduna South Local
Government Area, when a 41-year-old carpenter, Mr. Francis Emmanuel Francis,
almost lost his right eye on Tuesday following an attack on him by Muslim
youths for not observing the Ramadan fast.
This is coming barely a week after a 74-year-old, Mrs Bridget
Agbahime, was murdered in Kano for allegedly blaspheming Prophet Mohammed.
An eyewitness account had it that the carpenter courted trouble
for himself when he was spotted by some Muslim boys in the Sokoto Road area of
Kakuri, at about 2.30pm, eating when others were supposed to be observing the
fast. This drew the ire of the youth who started beating him.
Emmanuel, according to the eyewitness, was given the beating of
his life and subsequently rushed to the St. Gerard Catholic Hospital, where he
is currently receiving medical treatment.
He was inflicted with deep machete cuts on his head and other
parts of his body during the incident.
Narrating his ordeal to journalists from his hospital bed,
Emmanuel said he was taking his lunch when the boys, numbering about six,
descended on him on the grounds that he was not fasting.
He said, “I went to buy wood to do some work. When I came back, I
bought food to eat. As I was eating, about six Hausa boys came and asked me
whether I was a Muslim or a Christian. I did not answer them. They asked me why
I was not fasting. I told them that I am not a Muslim.
“Before I know it, one of them slapped me. As I stood up, the rest
came and surrounded me and started attacking me with knives. I didn’t know
them. Nobody could come to my aid because of the type of dangerous knives they
were carrying.
“They used cutlasses, scissors and knives. I became unconscious; I
don’t even know who brought me to the hospital.”
No comments:
Post a Comment