Civic Pulse Nigeria
Quarterly civic space report
Q2 2022
April to June 2022
Complete quarter. Generated 19 Sept 2026.
- Published records
- 3
- Change on Q1 2022
- +3
- States named
- 2
- Reporting organisations
- 3
3 civic space records were published for April to June 2022. Citizen Engagement and Policy Influence was the most frequently recorded category.
Records by category
- Citizen Engagement1
- Arrests & Detention1
- Harassment1
- Government Discourse0
- Resource Access0
- Legal & Regulatory0
Where records were located
- Sokoto2
- Kano1
Who reported these incidents
- Rights monitors
- 1
- News outlets
- 2
- Official and court records
- 0
- Al Jazeera1
- Human Rights Watch1
- Sahara Reporters1
The records
- 16 May 2022·Sokoto·CPN-0088
Student in Nigeria murdered over blasphemy allegation
On 12 May 2022 students at Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto killed fellow student Deborah Samuel, also known as Deborah Yakubu, over a WhatsApp message they considered blasphemous. They took her from a campus security post, beat her and set her body on fire. Police reported arresting two suspects.
- 14 May 2022·Sokoto·CPN-0089
Nigeria: curfew declared in Sokoto after student killing protests
Authorities declared a curfew in Sokoto after protests that followed the killing of student Deborah Samuel.
- 5 Apr 2022·Kano·CPN-0090
Court sentences Kano atheist Mubarak Bala to 24 years in jail over blasphemy
The Kano State High Court sentenced Mubarak Bala, president of the Nigerian Humanist Association, to 24 years in prison on 18 counts under the Kano State Penal Code over Facebook posts deemed blasphemous. He had been arrested at his home in Kaduna State on 28 April 2020 and was held for 462 days before being charged. In May 2024 the Court of Appeal reduced the sentence to five years.
- Sahara Reporters: https://saharareporters.com/2022/04/05/court-sentences-kano-atheist-mubarak-bala-24-years-jail-over-blasphemy
- Humanists UK: https://humanists.uk/2022/04/05/nigerian-humanist-association-president-mubarak-bala-sentenced-to-24-years-in-prison-for-blasphemy/
- Humanists International: https://humanists.international/2024/05/nigeria-court-of-appeal-reduces-sentence-of-mubarak-bala/
How this report was compiled
Every record in this report is compiled by hand from reports published by named rights monitors, news outlets and official bodies, and links to the source it draws on. Each record is dated to the incident where its source gives that date, and otherwise to the date the source was published. The figures show what has been recorded, not the full extent of what has happened: incidents that were never reported do not appear, and a state with few records is not necessarily a state where little took place.