Rhoda Jatau has been targeted by controversial blasphemy laws in northern Nigeria, where Sharia Law is applicable.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1838610/nigeria-woman-jailed-lynching-christian-islam
A healthcare worker charged with blasphemy laws simply for condeming the brutal killing of a student in Nigeria has today failed in her attempt to get a trial date in order for her case to be heard.
Mother-of-five Rhoda Jatau, 45, appeared at the High Court in Bauchi in the north of the country, having spent the last 18 months in prison.
She has reportedly been held without a trial and without the ability to communicate with her family.
Ms Jatau was arrested was taken into custody after sharing a video of and commenting on the horrific lynching of 22-year-old Deborah Samuel Yakubu in May of last year.
Ms Yakubu, a Christian, used a student WhatsApp group to thank Jesus Christ for helping her pass her exams at Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto, Nigeria, where she was studying.
As a result, she was dragged from her college dormitory by male students, stoned and burned to death.
Despite the faces of her killers faces being clearly visible in gruesome viral footage circulated on West African social media networks, nobody has so far been charged with her murder.
Five days after her killing, healthcare worker and mother Rhoda Jatau commented on the case to her colleagues.
Sharing a video clip with a WhatsApp group of Bauchi State Primary Healthcare workers, she condemned the murder, defending Yakubu’s right to express her religious beliefs.
Ms Jatau’s colleagues forwarded her message, at which point she was accused of blasphemy.
Her neighbourhood in Katanga, Warji Local Government Area, was engulfed by rioting and violence. She was arrested, and her husband and children fled their home.
Rhoda Jatau's husband Adamu and their children (Image: Open Doors)
Rhoda was taken into custody and charged by the authorities with blasphemy, inciting a mob, and contempt of a religious creed.
In December 2022, she was charged with “intention to disturb the public peace in which the content of the video is a blasphemy of the Prophet Mohammed which seriously incited disturbance and caused the breach of peace of the community...”.
Human rights lawyers have pointed out that Sections 38 and 39 of Nigeria’s constitution guarantee freedom of thought, freedom of conscience, freedom of religion and expression.
Human rights experts claim the continual postponements of the hearing are a tactic to keep Ms Jatau in jail indefinitely.
Today was the sixth attempt by her lawyers to secure her a trial and mount a defence. Previous hearings have collapsed due to the local government citing delays, loss of paperwork, or declaring unexpected holidays.
Caroline Duffield of Open Doors UK & Ireland said: “This is a bitter blow. Rhoda Jatau has been imprisoned without trial for 18 months now.
"Her only crime was to tell friends on social media that she condemned a shocking act of mob violence that killed an innocent woman.
