Nigerian lawyer receives US international religious freedom award

Kola Alapinni, a Nigerian human rights lawyer, on Thursday, received the US Secretary of State’s award for international religious freedom.

He was recognised for providing legal defence in multiple freedom of religion or belief cases and challenging the constitutionality of Nigerian blasphemy laws.

Mr Alapinni has provided pro bono legal representation to people with life-threatening cases in north-west Nigeria.

For example, he is the leading defence counsel in two prominent blasphemy cases in Kano.

The first case involved Omar Bashir, a minor who was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment by a Kano Sharia court in 2020 and subsequently released on appeal following Mr Alapinni’s intervention.

The second case involves a Muslim singer Yahaya Aminu who was sentenced to death by the same Kano court and whose appeal is pending with the Nigerian Supreme Court.

“When Omar Farouq Bashir and Yahaya Sharif-Aminu were arrested and charged with blasphemy in 2020, lawyers were reluctant to defend them in court because of the threat that violent mobs would attack or kill them and/or burn their homes,” the statement announcing Mr Alapinni’s award said describing the circumstances under which he defended the cases.

North-west Nigeria has a history of hysteric mobs violently reacting to issues that relate to blasphemy.

In 2022, some students of Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto, lynched a 200-level female student of the Department of Early Childhood Education, Deborah Emmanuel, over an allegation of blasphemy against Prophet Muhammed.

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She was stoned and later set ablaze by the angry mob, who were mostly students of the college.

The second blasphemy case (Yahaya Aminu) handled by Mr Alapinni saw the death sentence overturned but the case was remitted to the Sharia Court for a retrial.

The case is now at the Supreme Court of Nigeria seeking to free Mr Aminu and to challenge the Sharia Penal Code laws in Northern Nigeria.

“We continue to support all who are working to advance human rights and the right to express religious freedom or belief,” the US Department of State said in a post on X.

Other awardees include Farid Ahmed from New Zealand who is spreading a message of love and tolerance after his wife was killed in the 2019 New Zealand Christchurch Mosque attacks.

Others include Mirza Dinnayi, a Yezidi human rights defender and religious freedom activist from Iraq, and Peter Jacob, an advocate for religious freedom and human rights from Pakistan.

Others are Martha Montenegro, a Nicaraguan lawyer documenting government repression of the Catholic Church and religious communities, and Tali Nates from South Africa who teaches young people to stand against antisemitism, racism, xenophobia, homophobia, and all forms of othering.

Also recognised is Lhadon Tethong, co-founder and director of the Tibet Action Institute (TAI) where she leads a team of technologists and human rights advocates in developing and advancing open-source communication technologies, nonviolent strategies, and innovative training programmes for Tibetans and members of other groups facing repression by the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

Nine Orthodox clerics from Lithuania who were cast out of their churches following pressure from Moscow, because of their vocal opposition to Russia’s war against Ukraine, were also recognised.