Islamist militants go on rampage in Northern Nigeria: CEN 5.30.08 p 6.

Read it all in The Church of England Newspaper.

Islamist militants affiliated with the Shariah police in the northeastern Nigerian state of Bauchi have burned six Churches and ransacked the palace of the Emir of Ningi after police rescued two teenage girls who had been kidnapped and forcibly converted to Islam.

The anti-Christian pogrom comes amidst increasing sectarian tensions in Northern Nigeria. Over the past year 13 Christian teenage girls in the town of Ningi have been kidnapped and forcibly converted to Islam. Once they become Muslims, even if by force, the government has been reluctant to act as the state Shariah Council has so far refused to permit their return to their families.

In late April, two Christian girls in foster care, Mary Chikwodi Okoye, (15), and Uche Edward, (14) disappeared from their homes in the town of Ningi. Their foster parents mounted a search and discovered the girls had been kidnapped by Islamist militants and were housed in the palace of the Emir, Mohammad Yunusa Danyaya. The girls had allegedly converted to Islam and were to be married to Muslim men.

Local police accompanied by the girls’ foster parents confronted the Emir, asking that the girls be returned to their families. Accounts differ as to how the girls were released, as one Nigerian newspaper reported the Emir turned the girls over to their families upon learning of the circumstances of their conversions, while other news sources report the police removed the girls from the palace over the objections of the Emir.

Police took custody of the girls, however, transporting them to safety in Southern Nigeria.

Members of the Hisbah, the Shariah police in Bauchi state—one of several Northern Nigerian states that have adopted Shariah law, rioted upon learning of the girls’ release. The mob denounced the Emir, saying he had sold out to the Christians and burned his palace. They then turned their furry upon the local Christian community, burning All Souls Anglican Church and five other churches in the town as well as the homes and businesses of local Christians.

Robinson Ajolokwu Ozuegbunna, the foster father of the Uche Edward and a member of the All Souls Anglican Church, told the Compass Direct news service that he had “lost everything” in the attack, but was grateful for Uche’s release.

In 2004 the Ningi Shariah court made international news when it condemned a woman to death for having had sexual relations with a man not her husband. The Shariah Court sentenced Daso Amadu to be stoned. However, the state Shariah Court later overturned the ruling and ordered her release.