An Islamic cleric and Chairman of the Kano State Hisbah Board, Sheikh Aminu Daurawa, has raised the alarm over the worsening security situation in the country, saying people can no longer feel safe in their own homes.
Sheikh Daurawa spoke in an emotional video shared online while reacting to the killing of a woman, Fatima, and her six children in the Dorayi Chiranchi area of Kano.
He said the incident deeply affected him and robbed him of sleep.
“I woke up after spending the night in deep sadness, pain and distress. I wished the lecture had started at the scheduled time, but sleep eluded my eyes because of the news I received,” he said.
According to him, officials of the Hisbah Board sent him details and images from the scene, which he described as too disturbing to comprehend.
He recounted the horror of a man returning home only to find his family murdered.
“Imagine that you return home from the office, school, farm or from work, and you meet your wife and children laid out before you, slaughtered by terrorists, with some of them thrown into a well,” he said.
The cleric described the act as extremely cruel and unlike anything he had ever known.
“I thought of Pharaoh, but even Pharaoh did not kill women; he killed men. Even in the era of ignorance, such wickedness did not combine killing a mother and all her children together. I have never read of such terrorism in history,” he said.
He warned that insecurity has reached a frightening stage.
“Our homes are no longer safe. Our roads are no longer safe. You go out and someone comes into your house and kills your family,” he said, recalling similar cases in which families were attacked while their breadwinners were away.
Sheikh Daurawa blamed the rise in violent crime on poor upbringing and neglect within society, stressing that those responsible were not strangers.
“These are children we ourselves gave birth to. We did not give them proper religious upbringing or modern education. They turned to drugs, idleness and violent content, and that is what produced this behaviour,” he said.
He added that the growing trend of people killing close family members should trouble everyone with faith.
“Anyone who hears this and has faith, his heart will be shaken, especially when he imagines it happening to him,” he said.
The cleric called on security agencies to arrest everyone involved and urged the courts to ensure that justice is served.
“If the security agencies arrest all of them, then they have done a great job,” he said.
He also criticised state governors for delaying the approval of executions for convicted murderers, warning of grave consequences.
“Any governor who delays, even for one minute, will carry the burden of the victims on the Day of Judgment,” he said.
