According to accounts, the Islamic scholar and his family were returning home in the Gaskiya area of Zaria at about 10pm after Albani’s preaching session at Markazul Salafiyyah in Tudun Wada, when the assailants stopped the vehicle not from their destination and the Darul Hadith School Albani ran. Two associates of his who were also in the car sustained injuries.
Sheikh Albani grew up where he was born, in the Muchia Sabon Gari area of Zaria. A graduate of Information Technology from the Federal University of Technology Yola, Adamawa State, Albani had his secondary education at Barewa College, Zaria. Before his death, he was a Masters Degree student of Electrical and Electronics Engineering at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. Sheikh Albani was the proprietor of the Albani Science Academy located in Gaskiya Layout of Zaria. He was also the leader of the Darul Hadith s-Salafiyyah Centre in Tudun Wada, Zaria.
He was known to be opposed to the goals and methods of the Boko Haram group behind the insurgency in the North East. In a previous interview with Daily Trust, Sheikh Albani expressed a strong desire for Muslim youths to acquire Western education in order to be competitive in a complex and fast-changing global landscape. It was that desire that prompted him to go back to the university to pursue a Masters programme.
There has been no claim of responsibility for the killings; nor have the motives for them been established. However, Sheikh Albani was well known for his criticism of Boko Haram. By his own accounts, he had at various times counselled the group’s late leader, Mohammed Yusuf, against its doctrinal repudiation of western education.
Albani had a history of brushes with authorities too. Not long before the fatal attack, Sheikh Albani was detained over allegations that he had links with Boko Haram. He went to court and successfully debunked the allegation. Between 1993 and 1994, an unidentified group attacked him at his Muchia Sabon Gari area tailoring shop. He was rescued when neighbours and passers-by intervened. There were two other known but unsuccessful attempts on his life thereafter at his Gaskiya residence.
In Albani’s murder, a pattern seems to have emerged indicating that some Muslim clerics who differ ideologically with the Boko Haram group live under the shadow of possible assassination. Sheikh Ja’afar Mahmud Adam met a similar fate in the hands of gunmen as he led dawn prayers in Kano. Before him, Sheikh Umar Dan Mai Shiya of Sokoto was killed in similar circumstances. A disturbing thread that runs through these and other cases is the fact that there has been no conclusive investigation into any of them, let alone revealing the assassins and bringing them to book. It is a scandalous fact that the police and other security agencies must bear as burden because it represents a permanent blemish on their record.
Albani’s death however should serve as a galvanising jolt to the authorities to end this complacency and take action to stop further attacks on clerics that are otherwise peaceful and law abiding citizens.
Calls for thorough investigation into Albani’s killing are in order; the police should step up and fish out the culprits for prosecution.
