Onaiyekan differs as Muslim clerics back FG on Shiites’ ban

The Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, Cardinal John Onayeikan, has described the proscription of the Shiite movement by the Federal Government as an error.

He said, “The proscription portrays us as a country where government can wake up one day, get a court order from nowhere that particular religious group is proscribed.

“If we allow that to go, it means Catholics and my own religion too can be proscribed any day by any government who manages to get any judge to issue an ex-parte or non-ex-parte order.”

He said the Shiite sect members had the right to protest the continued incarceration of their leader, Ibraheem El-Zakzaky, noting that if he (Onaiyekan) was detained unjustly, it would be difficult to prevent Catholic faithful from protesting against his incarceration.

However, some Muslim clerics in separate interviews with Daily Trust on Tuesday in Abuja supported the government’s action, especially in the interest of the nation’s security and citizens’ well-being.

The Proprietor, Daarul-Uluumil-Islamiyya-Fi-Naijiria (DUIN) International Academy, (Islamic Sciences House of Nigeria) Kubwa, Abuja, Dr. Rafee’ Owonla AL-Ijebuwi, said the government was right in its action as there cannot be a government within a government, especially that the activities of the proscribed organisation has led to loss of lives and destruction of properties.

“Their (Shiite) actions have majorly led to the disruption of peace which Islam stands for. It is good that the government has said that it is not opposing Shiite members who are not part of those causing the violence,” AL-Ijebuwi said.

On his part, the National Chief Imam of Al-Habibiyyah Islamic Society (AIS), Sheik Fuad Adeyemi, said: “Any religion of grouping that failed to recognise or appreciate the rights of others to peace, are not what they are meant to be and that government whose primary responsibility is to protect the citizens would not fold its arms and fail in that responsibility.

“The number of lives lost to their activities is a cause for concern. The most important is that justice prevails at all times,” Adeyemi said.