Christian Mother Jailed 14 Years for Sharing Faith
Her husband flees death threats; advocates call the 14-year sentence disproportionate under Nigeria’s constitutional protections for religious freedom.
A Christian mother from the Gwoza area of Borno State in northeast Nigeria has been sentenced to 14 years in prison after sharing her faith with a Muslim woman. Judge A.B. Kumdila of the Borno State High Court convicted Liyatu Samuel Dawa under Article 210 of the state penal code.
The woman who received her counsel later testified that she had converted to Christianity of her own free will and had not been forced. Dawa told the court that she had only counseled the woman and asked for clemency before the sentence was handed down.
Her husband, the evangelist Amos Suleman, said he has gone into hiding after receiving death threats. “I am running; my life is in danger,” he stated. He spent months in detention before being released on bail. He said extremists began threatening him after his release, and he expressed concern that he cannot visit his wife safely. The threats have not been independently verified, and those responsible have not been identified.
Gavvs Katiya, chairman of the Gwoza Refugee Resettlement Initiative, criticized the 14-year sentence as disproportionate. The Borno State government has not publicly commented. The full judgment, the charge sheet, and the evidence considered by the court are not publicly available, so the precise legal basis of the conviction cannot yet be fully determined.
The case unfolds amid years of violence in Borno, where Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province have attacked civilians, security forces, and communities. Gwoza, near the Cameroon border, has been heavily affected by the insurgency. No direct link has been established between those armed groups and the proceedings against Dawa.
Article 38(1) of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution guarantees freedom of thought, conscience, and religion, including the right to change religion and to manifest or propagate beliefs. Article 42 prohibits religious discrimination against Nigerian citizens. Nigeria’s National Human Rights Commission has identified Articles 38 and 40 as constitutional protections for religious belief and peaceful association.
For Catholics who follow the Church’s teaching on religious liberty and the dignity of conscience, the conviction of a mother for peaceful witness raises a stark question: whether the letter of local penal codes is being applied in a way that respects the higher law of the land—and the natural right of every person to seek and share the truth about God. Christian communities in northeast Nigeria continue to live under pressure from both armed jihadist violence and legal and social constraints on evangelization. Dawa’s sentence, and her husband’s flight, place that double burden in sharp relief.