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| Africa: Subsaharan |
| Nigerian Moslems Debate With Nigerian Christians About Religion |
| 2004-12-27 |
| From Compass Direct Opposition to Christian evangelism on the campuses of two Nigerian institutions of higher learning has resulted in the murder of Sunday Nache Achi, a fourth-year architectural student at Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University in the northern city of Bauchi. University representatives had earlier expelled three other Christian students for distributing a leaflet that compared the teachings of Jesus with Islamic beliefs. Muslims students at the nearby Bauchi Federal Polytechnic threatened two Christians with death before the pair was expelled from the school for similar evangelistic activities. Following the murder of Achi and the destruction by arson of the offices of the Nigeria Fellowship of Evangelical Students (NIFES), authorities in Bauchi ordered Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University and Federal Polytechnic closed. Achi served as president of the campus ministry of the Evangelical Church of West Africa (ECWA). Idakwo Ako Paul, who shared a room with Achi in a student hostel on campus, told Compass that the young man was attending a Bible study the evening of December 8 when a band of Muslim students came looking for him. "Three Muslim students dressed in Islamic jihad style burst into the room at about 8 p.m.," Paul said. "I was scared because in the past two months, there has been palpable tension on the campus between Muslim and Christian students. They wanted to know where my roommate was. I told them I didn't know and they left. Sunday returned to the room about 11 p.m. and I told him what had transpired." Paul said he retired for the night while Achi worked on architectural drawings for a class presentation the following morning. However, not long after falling asleep, Paul was awakened by his roommate's shouts. "'Wake up Paul, wake up!' Sunday was shouting. I jumped out of bed to be confronted again by these Muslim students. This time they were more in number and were wearing masks. They dragged Sunday Achi out of the room. I tried running after them, but one of them pointed a pistol at me and ordered me back into the room. They locked me in there. I kept shouting for help but the Muslim students in the hostel deliberately kept to their rooms." |
| Posted by:Mike Sylwester |