By Temitope Adedeji
The Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party Atiku Abubakar has given the reason behind his deleting the tweet which condemned the killing of Deborah Yakubu, a student of the Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto.
Speaking on People’s Townhall a Channels TV programme on Sunday, Atiku said the tweet was deleted because it was not authorised by him.
He continued that contrary to claims, he has gone ahead to condemn the murder in subsequent statements.
“I asked the tweet to be deleted because I normally approve every tweet. So, since I didn’t approve it, I said, ‘delete it’. If you read my subsequent statements on that murder, I condemned it.
“There is nowhere it is said or it is an injunction in the Islamic faith that you can go and take somebody’s life, nowhere, it has to be through due process,” the former Vice President said.
There were wide condemnations after Atiku’s initial tweet condemning the murder of the 200-level student was deleted after it received backlash from some Northerners who threatened not to support the former vice president.
Deborah was killed in May, following an allegation that she had blasphemed Prophet Muhammad (SAW).
