Abel Ndooka
KANO. — A prominent Nigerian atheist, who has just been freed after serving more than four years in prison for blasphemy, is now living in a safe house as his legal team fear his life may be in danger.
Mubarak Bala, 40, was convicted in a court in the northern city of Kano after, in a surprise move, he pleaded guilty to 18 charges relating to a controversial Facebook post shared in 2020.
“The concern about my safety is always there,” he told the BBC in an exclusive interview as he tucked into his first meal as a free man.
Nigeria is a deeply religious society and those who may be seen as having insulted a religion — whether Islam or Christianity — face being shunned and discriminated against.
Blasphemy is an offence under Islamic law — Sharia — which operates alongside secular law in 12 states in the north. It is also an offence under Nigeria’s criminal law. Bala, who renounced Islam in 2014, said there were times during his incarceration that he felt he “may not get out alive”.
He feared he could have been targeted by guards or fellow inmates in the first prison he was in, in Kano, which is a mainly Muslim city.
“Freedom is here, but also there is an underlying threat I now have to face,” he said. “All those years, those threats, maybe they’re out there.” — BBC.
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter
