Katsina cleric: Yahaya Masussuka shot dead outside home

Yahaya Masussuka, a Nigerian Islamic cleric who challenged mainstream religious dogmas, was shot dead outside his home in Dutsin-Ma, Katsina state, on Monday evening. Police confirmed that the 47-year-old preacher and one of his visitors were pronounced dead by attending doctors after being rushed to the hospital.

Witnesses reported that two assailants arrived on a motorcycle and opened fire as Masussuka was saying goodbye to guests. The shooter's motivation remains unclear, though the cleric had received death threats on social media. In videos posted online, he rejected specific elements of Islamic tradition, including the belief that souls are questioned by angels in the grave.

Mainstream Islamic understanding, derived from the Hadith, holds that a person's soul is interrogated after death. If the soul answers correctly, it sleeps peacefully until the Day of Judgement; otherwise, it faces torment. Masussuka based his teachings primarily on the Quran, questioning these hadiths and arguing that the dead are not reawakened for questioning. His views once led to his imprisonment for nine months after he teased respected scholars over their adherence to these texts.

Masussuka began preaching in Quranic schools at age 13 and later attended Al-Azhar University in Egypt before pursuing further studies in Oman. At his residence, he operated a studio to record teaching videos for social media followers. He was a vocal advocate for interfaith dialogue and peaceful coexistence between Nigeria's Muslim and Christian populations, which are nearly equal in size.

In 2025, Nigeria's Network for Good Governance and Transparency awarded Masussuka the Peace Ambassador Award for his efforts. The cleric had two wives and seven children. His death adds to a pattern of violence against northern Nigerian preachers; six other prominent Muslim leaders have been murdered in the last two decades. Several of those killings were attributed to Boko Haram, a jihadist group founded in the north-east in 2009 that opposes Western culture and seeks to establish an Islamic state.

The Boko Haram insurgency has contributed to ethnic and religious violence that has killed thousands of Christians and Muslims in Nigeria over the past 25 years. Masussuka's advocacy for moderation and his critique of traditional interpretations place him in a distinct category among the slain preachers. The local police are investigating the incident, and the community in Dutsin-Ma is preparing for the funeral rites.