vigilant TV

One of Nigeria’s Muslim states has declared a fatwa against This Day fashion writer Isioma Daniel, condemning her to death for her article that sparked the weekend riots. The federal government has rejected the fatwa as “null and void”, and warned it will not allow the order to be carried out. Daniel has reportedly left the country.

Zamfara State earlier said it endorsed an Islamic decree calling for Muslims to slay Isioma Daniel, a fashion writer who offended some Muslims with an article in This Day newspaper on the Miss World beauty pageant.

“Just like the blasphemous Indian writer Salman Rushdie, the blood of Isioma Daniel can be shed,” Deputy Governor Mahamoud Shinkafi told a gathering of Muslim groups in Zamfara state’s capital, Gusau.

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“The federal government under the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria will not allow such an order in any part of the federal republic, because the federal republic is governed by the rule of law,” [Information Minister Jerry Gana] said.

– AP/AFP, Miss World fatwa ‘null and void’.

See also this earlier article, in which the Nigerian President is quoted as blaming the article for the 220 deaths.

Last week the state security service announced it had issued arrest warrants for Daniel and her editor on the Saturday edition of the daily, Simon Kolawole.

Late yesterday, in an interview with CNN, President Olusegun Obasanjo blamed the This Day article for starting the riots and putting paid to Nigeria’s ambition to host the pageant.

The managing director for This Day, Victor Ifijeh, told AFP today that Kolawole was still in custody after his arrest but that the paper hoped he would be freed soon.

– AFP, Fashion writer’s death call.