NSCIA Seeks Police Protection For Muslims In Ekiti Over Attacks
The President of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) in Ekiti State, Alhaji Yakub Sanni has called on the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris to put in place adequate security that will ensure the protection of lives and property of Muslims in the state.
Sanni who made the call in Ado Ekiti on Monday, accused the Ekiti Police Command of not acting on a petitions submitted by the body on the attack by some masqueraders on Muslims in Ikun Ekiti in Moba local government area of the state last week.
The Islamic body warned that it might not be able to hold down the Muslims from defending themselves if nothing was done by the necessary organs of government.
The masqueraders had invaded an Ansarudeen Central Mosque in the town and attacked worshipers who were breaking their fast before the Maghrib prayer with cudgels, stone and iron and inflicted injuries on them.
The masqueraders, it was learnt, were irked that the Muslims had the effrontery to call for prayers when they were still celebrating their Egun festival.
About five of the worshippers were said to have sustained varying degrees of injury in the attack while the windscreen of two cars parked at the entrance of the mosque were smashed with axe and stone.
The Acting Imam of the mosque, Alh. Abdul-Rasak Abubakar-Bello, was rushed to the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, Ado Ekiti, where he received stitches on his head.
Bello who recalled that the Masqueraders had earlier attacked the same mosque and the worshippers in 2013 accused the Divisional Police Office of ignoring distress calls made to him by the Muslim community as he refused to send his men there.
According to Sanni, “It has, therefore, become a routine action of these masquerade worshippers to attack Muslims and their mosque in Ikun-Ekiti in the name of celebrating their Egungun festival. It took the intervention of the State Government in 2013 to avert what could have snowballed to a full blown crisis.
“In the same vein, we hereby call on Governor Ayodele Fayose, in his pragmatic manner, to step into this matter and call the Onikun of Ikun, Oba David Olusola, and his lieutenants to order.”
The NSCIA also urged the IG to “immediately direct the Commissioner of Police, Abdullahi Chafe, to arrest and prosecute all the perpetrators of this dastardly act.
“The leadership of the NSCIA may not be able hold down the Muslims from defending themselves if nothing is done by the necessary organs of government,” he said.
