AzmanAir, which prides itself as ‘Nigeria’s Best Passenger Airline,’ has denied any link with Captain Jamil Abubakar, a pilot and son of a former Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Abubakar, because of his open support for lynching, burning of Deborah Samuel in Sokoto over alleged blasphemy
Captain Jamil Abubakar tweeted on Friday night on his verified Twitter handle @CaptJamyl, following the controversy generated by the lynching and burning of a female student of the Shehu Shagari College of Education, Deborah Yakubu Samuel by extremists for alleged blasphemy.
Abubakar, who is also a son-in-law to Africa’s wealthiest man, Aliko Dangote, said the punishment meted out to blasphemers in most religions is death and urged people to respect the religion of others.
He tweeted, “In Islam we respect the Injil, Taura, Zabur, we were never taught to disrespect any of the books, or any of the prophets From Adam to Muhammad SAW and the Quran.
“The punishment for blasphemy is death! in most religions including Christianity. Respect people’s religion. It’s simple!”
Fearing a backlash and fears that AzmanAir could be linked with Abubakar whose tweet could cause some passengers to boycott it on the ground that fundamentalist could be on the pilot seat of its aircraft being patronized by both Muslims and non-Muslims, AzmanAir on Sunday put out a public notice via Twitter saying he is no longer in their employment.
According to the tweet AzmanAir – #LetsFlyAzmanAir @AzmanAir titled “PUBLIC NOTICE: Capt Jamil Abubakar is no longer a pilot
@AzmanAir; his last flight with us was 22nd Dec 2019. We refuse to take responsibility for a comment or view of a former staff. The General Public should kindly take note. http://AirAzman.com.”
However, in an earlier tweet, Jamil made it known that instead of resorting to jungle justice, recourse should have been made to the Sharia Court noting that “Islam put in place rules and regulations to control people’s actions and motives” so as to ensure that justice is served.
He tweeted, “In Islam, the Sharia court handles these cases. Islam put rules & regulations to control peoples action and motives, so the wrong ones are not cheated and justice is served the right way.”