At least 34 lawyers have expressed interest in defending Deborah Samuel’s killers in court today.
The suspects have been identified as Bilyaminu Aliyu and Aminu Hukunci, according to GIOTV.
Prof. Mansur Ibrahim led the defense team.
Deborah Samuel, a 200-Level Home Economics student at Sokoto’s Shehu Shagari College of Education, was lynched on May 12 by a mob for alleged blasphemy.
However, the suspects, who were co-students with the deceased, were charged in a Sokoto Chief Magistrate’s Court for their alleged involvement in the crime.
They pleaded not guilty to the crime when asked to enter their pleas.
Prosecuting Insp Khalil Musa told the court that an investigation was in progress as Deborah’s corpse was still in a morgue at the Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto.
The leader of the defense team, Prof. Mansur Ibrahim then applied for the bail of the suspects on liberal terms, citing constitutional provisions and sections of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law.
The trial judge (name withheld for security reasons), however, reserved the ruling on the bail application and ordered the accused to be remanded at a correctional center.
Before she was lynched, Deborah was accused of denigrating Islam on a WhatsApp chat platform set up by her coursemates and refused to retract her post after she was asked to pull it down.
A violent street protest followed the arrest of suspects linked to the lynching of Deborah as the protesters demanded their immediate release by security operatives.
Gov. Aminu Tambuwal consequently imposed a 24-hour curfew on Sokoto metropolis on Saturday. He relaxed the curfew on Monday to be observed from dusk to dawn.