Barely 10 days after a mob killed an Igbo woman for allegedly committing blasphemy in Kano, a 41-year-old carpenter, Francis Emmanuel, was stabbed yesterday afternoon by unknown youths for eating during the Ramadan fast. Governor Nasir El-Rufai visited the victim of the assault earlier this morning at St. Gerard Catholic Hospital where he ordered the police to fish out the perpetrators for prosecution. The incident occurred at 2:30pm on Tuesday when Emmanuel was eating in his workshop when the youths suddenly appeared from nowhere and started attacking him for eating on the afternoon of Ramadan.
Speaking with journalists from his hospital bed, the carpenter spoke of his terrifying ordeal. “It happened around 2:30pm at Sokoto Road, Kakuri, on Tuesday, when I went to the market to buy wood to do some work,” Emmanuel said. “So, when I came back, I bought food to eat. As I was eating, about six Hausa boys came to ask me if I am a Muslim or a Christian, but I did not answer them.
“They asked why I was not fasting, then, 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.” Emmanuel then told the gathered journalists he did not know the identity of the vicious and bigoted attackers. “Nobody could come to my aid because of the type of knives the boys were carrying. They used cutlasses scissors and knives, I became unconscious, I don’t even know who brought me to the hospital,” he added.
