By Tunde Oyekola
The Oodua People Congress (OPC) has advised the Federal Government to relocate the Kwara State capital from Ilorin to a neutral ground that is away from the present location since the Muslims are refusing to accommodate people of other religions.
The state Co-ordinator of OPC, New Era in Kwara State, Comrade Bayo Fabiyi, said this is a way to settle the impasse between Muslims in Ilorin and adherents of traditional religion.
Fabiyi made the suggestion in a statement he issued on Sunday to commemorate this year’s Isese Day
The OPC Co-ordinator in the statement explained that there are several areas in the state which include the entire Kwara South, North and some parts of the northern parts of the state where they practice Isese traditional religion and other religions, as well as Islam without confrontation.
“There are Muslims in other places cohabiting with their Isese and other religious brothers without crises or disturbances.
“Therefore, if Ilorin is the only place where Isese becomes a challenge, the status of Ilorin as a state capital should be changed while the ancient town can be allowed to remain purely an Islamic place because of all towns in Kwara, only Ilorin is where Islamic extremism thrives.”
Fabiyi said that while he would advise all Isese people never to fight or kick against the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari, as a royal father over all, he also advised that Muslim clerics follow the “deenukum waliya deen” principle of Islam, and allow the Isese people to practice their religion without troubling or causing intrusion into their mode of worship.
He criticised the Muslim fundamentalists who ignored several other serious issues such as cultism and other issues of insecurity but chose to selectively face the Isese groups that are just practicing their religion without hindering the peace of others.
Fabiyi , also reiterated that insecurity in Kwara is occasioned by the admittance of the Fulani who were displaced from Igangan in Oyo State into Ilorin.
He lamented that, against his earlier warnings when Abubakar Iskail was not heeded, the group when chased from Igangan in Oyo State, would settle down in Ilorin, but nobody yielded his advice.
The OPC Co-ordinator lamented that he raised this alarm long ago about the impending danger of allowing the man to take abode in the state, “but no one in the security architecture of Kwara state listened to him.”
He advised that the only way to end insecurity in Kwara is by nipping it in the bud and chasing intruding herdsmen who are allegedly involved in kidnapping out of Kwara.
(Punch / vitalnewsngr.com)
