A retired Assistant Director of the Department of State Security Service (DSS) Dennis Amachree, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to declare religious intolerance and fanaticism as pandemics that are required to be expeditiously eradicated from the country.
Amachree, the proprietor of ZoomLens Security Solutions, told the News Agency of Nigeria, that he regarded the murder of Deborah Samuel Yakubu in Sokoto as a by-product of religious intolerance and an act of fanaticism.
He said: “The students that committed this cruel act are the fanatics and don’t have tolerance for other religions.
“It is heart rendering to see Nigerians kill another for religious reasons.
“More painful is that this evil act was committed by students of a tertiary institution, who are supposed to be open-minded and knowledgeable to advance religious tolerance in our nation.
“To have to stone and burn alive a fellow student in the name of religion and over an alleged case of blasphemy is a worrisome thing.”
Amachree also urged Muslim clerics and leaders to strengthen advocacy and preaching against fanatical beliefs.
“Our religious leaders across all the faiths need to disabuse the minds of their members, followers, and adherents of the faith against killing in the name of their belief,” he said.
Amachree said governments at all levels needed to increase advocacy against religious intolerance and fanatical tendencies.
