A Nigerian man was burned to death by a mob in the capital Abuja on Saturday following an argument with a Muslim cleric, police said.

Josephine Adeh, police spokesperson for Abuja, said Ahmad Usman had an argument with an unidentified cleric, which turned violent. Police who arrived at the scene took him to hospital where he was declared dead on arrival.

"The heated argument degenerated into an outbreak of violence that led to the murder and setting ablaze of Ahmad Usman by the enraged mob mobilized by the clergy numbering about two hundred," the police spokesman for Abuja said.

Last month, a female college student was beaten to death and set on fire by fellow students who said she had posted "blasphemous" statements in a student Whatsapp group. Two students have appeared in court over the matter.

Nigeria is a secular nation but some states in the mostly Muslim north observe Islamic sharia and have courts that punish those accused of deviating from its practices.

Reuters