ITALIAN FOOTBALLERS KICK OFF SOLIDARITY FOR SAFIYA

this weekend’s Serie A and Serie B football matches in Italy will kick-off with an unusual event. Players from all teams, referees, linesmen and even the fourth official, wearing identical white t-shirts, will form a long human chain if front of thousands of spectators to call for the annulment of the death sentence imposed on a Nigerian woman.
Safiya Hussaini Tungar-Tudu was sentenced to death in the northern Nigerian state of Sokoto last October for having a child out of wedlock. Safiya is divorced, but under Sharia law, is considered an adulteress, liable to death by stoning. Her case is now under appeal at the Sokoto Sharia Appeals court, and hearings will be resumed on March 18. She initially claimed she had been raped, but has now changed her line of defence claiming that her 1-year-old daughter Adamu was conceived with her former husband. If this claim is accepted by the court, the case against her will become groundless.
Various politicians and human rights group are campaigning to save her, and this latest initiative was thought up by Rome-based information website RomeONE.it. Italian football organizations, namely, Lega Calcio, Federazione Calcio, Associazione Italiana Arbitri e Associazione Calciatori, have adhered enthusiastically holding that the international language of football, hugely popular in Nigeria, may help save Safiya.
The Reggina-Cosenza, Serie B fixture on Friday night will set the ball rolling, followed by the Serie A Roma-Perugia match on Saturday, and all the other clashes on Sunday.
The event was presented in Rome on Thursday with the participation of all the footballing organisations, political and media personalities, and Hands Off Cain, which has adhered to this initiative.