A Christian mother, Liyatu Samuel Dawa, has been sentenced to 14 years in prison by the Borno State High Court after she was accused of influencing a Muslim woman to embrace Christianity.
Justice A. B. Kumdila handed down the sentence under Section 210 of the Borno State Penal Code. Dawa, from Gwoza, reportedly told the court that she merely advised the woman and appealed for leniency.
The woman involved in the case testified that she converted to Christianity voluntarily and was not forced to change her religion. 
The conviction has sparked questions over the circumstances surrounding the case, particularly the relationship between the charge, the evidence presented and Nigeria’s constitutional protection of religious freedom.
Section 38(1) of the 1999 Constitution guarantees freedom of thought, conscience and religion, including the right to change one’s religion and to manifest or propagate religious beliefs through teaching, worship, practice and observance.
Section 42 also prohibits discrimination against citizens on religious grounds.
Dawa’s husband, Evangelist Amos Suleman, said he has gone into hiding after receiving thre@ts to his life. He also said he spent months in detention before being released on bail.
“I’m on the run; my life is under thre@t,” Suleman said, expressing concern that he cannot safely visit his imprisoned wife.
Suleman stated that extremists began thre@tening him after his release, although the claims have not been independently verified and no perpetrators have been identified in available reports.
