Back in April, Humanists International wrote an online open letter to Kano State Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje regarding the unjust conviction and sentencing of Atheist activist Mubarak Bala. The open letter still welcomes signatures to show support and gather more attention.
On May 12, 2022, Sokoto State Police in northern Nigeria announced that they’d apprehended two suspects for the murder of Deborah Samuel after a riot started against her where a mob beat her to death and burned her body.
On April 2, Mubarak Bala pleaded guilty to blasphemy charges for posting social media posts that caused a public disturbance “due to their blasphemous content.” He was sentenced to 24 years in prison for his alleged crime.
On Tuesday, February 1, Mubarak Bala appeared for the first time after his arrest at the High Court of the state of Kano in Nigeria, almost two years after his arrest. Kano is the president of the Humanist Association of Nigeria and was arrested on April 25, 2020.
On November 19, Friday, an unknown person delivered a letter to the police headquarters in Gusau, a city in northwestern Nigeria. The letter threatened Christians in the Zamfara state not to hold public worship or Sunday services. If they do, they will be attacked; their members will be abducted, and their churches will be burned.
The state of Kano in northern Nigeria implemented a ban on mannequin heads. The new ban was announced by the Kano State Hisbah Corps, an Islamic police force funded by the government. At the start of July, the Hisbah Corps announced that mannequins with female heads are prohibited in "shops, commercial and private residences, and other public places."
On August 3, the High Court of Kano State in Nigeria formally charged Mubarak Bala, an atheist and president of the Humanist Association of Nigeria, for causing a public disturbance. The High Court's charges, which come as a highly delayed action, revolves around Bala's Facebook posts which spanned over 2020. The public disturbance charges fall under Kano State Penal Code's sections 114 and 210.
On April 28th, 2020, Mubarak Bala (age 37), an Ex-Muslim atheist and President of the Humanist Association of Nigeria, was apprehended at his home and then taken to the northern state of Kano. There he faced blasphemy accusations from religious figures. Blasphemy is punishable by death in the region where sharia law is enforced on Muslims despite Nigeria’s own Constitution.
