The Foundation for Peace Professionals (PeacePro) has called on political, religious and traditional leaders across Northern Nigeria to confront what it describes as the dangerous normalisation of violence against religious scholars over interpretation differences, warning that repeated killings without conclusive investigations and visible accountability risk deepening public fear and emboldening radicals.
The call follows the killing of Islamic scholar Sheikh Yahaya Ibrahim Masussuka and his associate, Adamu Abubakar, in Dutsin-Ma Local Government Area of Katsina State on the evening of Monday, October 26, 2026.
PeacePro said the killing has revived painful memories of earlier attacks on prominent Islamic scholars, including Sheikh Ja’afar Mahmud Adam, who was shot dead while leading dawn prayers in Kano in April 2007, and Sheikh Muhammad Auwal Albani Zaria, who was killed in an attack in Zaria in February 2014 alongside members of his family.
PeacePro said the concerns surrounding attacks on religious figures reinforce the need for credible investigations, evidence based findings and accountability.
The Executive Director of PeacePro, Abdulrazaq Hamzat, said condemnations by public officials and community leaders were important but insufficient without concrete action to prevent further killings.
“Northern Nigeria cannot afford a situation in which the killing of a religious scholar generates public outrage for a few days, followed by silence, uncertainty and the gradual acceptance of violence as normal,” Hamzat said.
He said the central concern was not merely the loss of individual lives, but also the wider consequences when people who teach, preach, challenge prevailing views or advocate peaceful coexistence fear that disagreement could expose them to lethal violence.
“When people begin to believe that a person can be killed for what he teaches, what he believes or the position he takes in a religious debate, the damage goes beyond the victim and his family. It threatens freedom of conscience, peaceful religious engagement and the ability of communities to resolve disagreements without violence,” he said.
PeacePro called on governors, traditional rulers, Islamic scholars, Christian leaders, community organisations and civil society groups across the North to build a coordinated response that addresses both violent incidents and the social conditions that allow violence to be justified, celebrated or tolerated.
According to Hamzat, such a response must go beyond issuing statements after killings.
It should include the protection of threatened religious figures, credible public communication, early-warning mechanisms, cooperation with security agencies and sustained engagement to challenge the ideological justification of murder.
“No individual or group should have the power to decide that another person has forfeited the right to live because of a theological disagreement, an unpopular interpretation or a commitment to peaceful coexistence,” Hamzat said.
PeacePro urged the police and other relevant security agencies to pursue the Masussuka case with urgency, preserve and examine available evidence, investigate credible leads and provide timely public updates without compromising the investigation.
PeacePro further called for a review of the circumstances in which religious scholars and other public figures face threats, particularly where credible warnings may have been issued before an attack.
PeacePro maintained that preventing extremist violence requires an integrated approach combining effective law enforcement, protection of vulnerable individuals, trusted local intelligence, responsible religious leadership and institutions capable of responding to threats before they become fatal.
“A society cannot defeat extremism merely by condemning its consequences. It must also challenge the normalisation of violence, protect those who reject it and ensure that people who commit murder are pursued through the law, regardless of their identity or claimed justification,” Hamzat said.
PeacePro expressed condolences to the families, followers and communities affected by the killings. It called for a sustained collective commitment to ensuring that religious disagreement, ideological intolerance and violent extremism do not become accepted features of public life in Northern Nigeria.