Tears flowed freely at the burial of Usman Buba, a butcher and Qur’an memorizer who was killed over alleged blasphemy in Sokoto on Sunday.

Usman was buried after a funeral prayer which was led by Sheikh Musa Lukuwa at the Mabera Juma’at mosque around 2:30 pm on Tuesday.

Buda was beaten to death following an argument over a religious matter at the Sokoto main abattoir.

His murder has continued to raise dust as some of the eyewitnesses who spoke to Daily Trust refuted the blasphemous claim.

One of the eyewitnesses, Nuhu Bala, said Usman did not blaspheme the Holy Prophet as claimed by his murderers.

“Usman was only preaching to a beggar who was using the name of the Holy Prophet in soliciting for alms.

“Some of his colleagues misunderstood his preaching and started calling him a disbeliever, and that he had blasphemed against the Holy Prophet. They started stunning him and stabbing him with knives.

“We initially intervened and rounded him up but we were overwhelmed by them. We quickly informed the police but he was killed before their arrival,” he said

Credit: Daily Trust