Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) Professor Ishaq Oloyede and Nigeria’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Ambassador Sarafa Ishola have intervened in the suspension of the Chief Imam of Egbaland Alhaji Saad Bamgbola.
The two prominent indigenes of Egbaland also appealed to the entire Egba Muslim community to sheathe their swords on the consequent suspension of those who took part in the suspension.
Oloyede and Ishola, who is also the Baba Adeen of Yorubaland, Edo and Delta States, urged the Muslim faithful to embrace peace and unity of the religion at this point in time.
Ambassador Isola who spoke online from the United Kingdom to newsmen in Abeokuta in an effort to douse the tension disclosed that he and Professor Oloyede, as high stakeholders, had fully engaged all those involved in the dispute in serious peace talks and urged them to ceasefire immediately.
The ambassador further disclosed that they had persuaded all those involved to maintain the peace and not to take any further action that might aggravate the already tense situation.
He added that all those involved had accepted a ceasefire pending further action to resolve all the issues.
He revealed more that steps were being taken at the level of the Alake of Egbaland Oba Adedotun Gbadebo for an enduring resolution that would promote peace, mutual respect and understanding among the Muslim leadership and followership within the Egba Muslim community.
The high commissioner, therefore, enjoined all Muslim leaders involved in the crisis not to issue or make further press statements concerning the matter until further notice.
He added that it was in the best interest of Islamic peace, progress and prosperity that Islamic schism must be avoided at all costs in Egbaland, Ogun State and elsewhere in Nigeria.
There was confusion in Abeokuta on Tuesday when news of Bamgbola’s suspension was announced.
Some notable Muslims in Egbaland had, on Monday, announced the suspension over allegations of “high-handedness, administrative exclusivity, mishandling of funds and conflicting of interest between his position as the chief imam and membership of another association”.
It was further gathered that aggrieved Egba Muslim chiefs, led by former military administrator of Bauchi State Navy Captain Rasheed Raji (retd.) had on Monday announced the suspension of the chief imam and appointed a second-in-command.
Reacting to the suspension, imams and alfas in the Egba community rejected the suspension of the grand chief imam by the chiefs.
They described the suspension of their leader as an “embarrassment to the Islamic religion and an act capable of causing religious war in the town”.
Addressing newsmen in Abeokuta on Tuesday, three principal chief imams who make up the other three sections of Egbaland, condemned the purported suspension, saying only the council of Islamic clerics in the town had the power to appoint or suspend the Chief Imam.
The Imams are the Imams of Owu, Gbagura and Oke-Ona Egba, Alhaji Kehinde Sulaimon; Professor Kamaldeen Balogun and Alhaji Muslimudeen Nasirudeen respectively.
