A retired assistant director of the State Security Service (SSS), Dennis Amachree, on Saturday warned that religious fanaticism would escalate security challenges in Nigeria if it is not expeditiously eradicated from the country.

Mr Amachree, in an interview, regarded the lynching of Deborah Samuel in Sokoto as a by-product of religious intolerance and act of fanaticism.

“Killing in the name of religion will only escalate the present insecurity in our country.

“It is really overdue to arrest these kinds of ugly outcomes in the name of religion in Nigeria.

“Our governments at all levels need to strategise with the law enforcement and other security agencies without delay, to eradicate such conducts,” he said. 

Ms Samuel, a 200 level student of Shehu Shahari College of Education, Sokoto, was on Thursday murdered on campus over alleged blasphemy.

The student was accused of posting a social media message that insulted the Muslim faith which resulted in a mob beating, stoning and setting her body ablaze.

However, Mr Amachree urged Muslim clerics and leaders to strengthen advocacy and preaching against fanatical beliefs.

“Our religious leaders across all the faiths need to disabuse the minds of their members, followers and adherents of the faith against killing in the name of their belief,” he said.

Mr Amachree, said governments at all levels needed to increase advocacy against religious intolerance and fanatical tendencies.

He said greater collaboration between governments and relevant non-state actors and agencies would fast track the extermination of religious intolerance and fanatics from Nigeria.

“The students that committed this cruel and inhuman act are clearly fanatics and don’t have tolerance for other religions.

“To have to stone and burn alive a fellow student in the name of religion and over an alleged case of blasphemy is a worrisome thing,” he said.

(NAN)