Na by force

Nigerian man detained in mental institute
in Kano 'because he renounced Islam'
Mubarak Bala is allegedly being held
and forcibly medicated on the grounds of
a 'personality change' after declaring he
did not believe in God
Mubarak Bala from his bed in Aminu Kano
Teaching Hospital
By HEATHER SAUL
Wednesday 25 June 2014
A Nigerian man has been committed to a
mental institute in Kano state despite
being given a clean bill of health because
he declared he did not believe in God, a
humanist charity has said.
Mubarak Bala is being held against his will
and forcibly medicated at the Aminu Kano
Teaching Hospital, where he has been kept
since 13 June, the International Humanist
and Ethical Union (IHEU) reports.
The chemical engineering graduate is
allegedly being held on the grounds of a
“personality change” because he declared
himself an atheist despite being raised in a
Muslim family in Kano, which is a mainly
Muslim state.
The organisation says that when Mr Bala
told his family he did not believe in God,
they took him to a doctor and asked if he
was mentally ill.
When this doctor found him to be fit and
well, the family are then believed to have
taken him to a second doctor who claimed
he was suffering with a personality
disorder. The family allegedly told this
doctor he also made delusional claims that
he was a “governor” and other "trivial
lies".
The 29-year-old managed to raise the
alarm that he was being held in emails
and tweets sent to activists from a
smartphone smuggled into the facility and
the IHEU said a Lagos-based group has
asked a lawyer to take up his case.
In one of the emails, he wrote:“And the
biggest evidence of my mental illness was
large blasphemies and denial of ‘history’
of Adam, and apostasy, to which the
doctor said was a personality change, that
everyone needs a God, that even in Japan
they have a God.
Read more: Apostasy: What you need to
know
"And my brother added that all the
atheists I see have had mental illness at
some point in their life.”
The IHEU is "deeply concerned" about Mr
Bala's welfare and violations of his human
rights.
IHEU spokesman Bob Churchill said: “It
appears that a warped notion of family
honour is the motivation to pressure
Mubarak in this appalling manner, to
conform to religious views that he simply
doesn’t hold. This is an abhorrent violation
of his freedom of thought and belief.
“We are joining with humanists and
human rights advocates in Nigeria and the
activists who have worked to highlight this
case, in calling for an immediate re-
evaluation of Mubarak’s case by a doctor
who is entirely independent of the family,
and for his swift release.”