By Soni Daniel

ABUJA—Governor Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara State, yesterday, explained that the murder of eight persons at Talata-Mafara over alleged blasphemy against Islam was caused by false alarm.

The governor, who spoke to newsmen after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, described the act as unnecessary and ‘act of the devil.’

Yari said: “From the intelligence I gathered from security agencies, there was a fight between two students of Abdu Gusau Polytechnic. One of them started shouting that the other person abused Prophet Muhammad.

Governor Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara State

“Other students came and beat the other boy, who is Yoruba from Kogi State. Some people say he was a Muslim, others say he was a Christian. They beat the student until he collapsed and thought he was dead.

“Then security personnel requested help from one shop owner, who then took the boy to the hospital in his car. When the students heard that the boy was still alive and in the hospital, they went to the hospital. But he was rescued by the army.

“The students went back to the polytechnic and burnt down the shop of the good Samaritan. They then went back to town, the crowd threw tyre in the man’s house and burnt it down.

“That was how everybody in the house was killed and everybody killed in the house were Muslims and not like the rumours going around in the social media that Christians are being killed in Zamfara.

“In fact, the mob wanted to go and burn churches and attack non-Muslims, but security forces stopped them. It’s my home town and that’s where I live.”