…as police stops procession
More controversies have continued to trail the inauguration of the Independent Shari’ah Arbitration Panel inaugurated in Ado, the Ekiti State capital, last week.
This followed a protest by the Yoruba Regional Alliance (YRA) worldwide in collaboration with all Yoruba self-determination organisations.
The protesters gathered at a hotel in Adebayo area of Ado Ekiti where there chanted songs carried placards with various inscriptions such as, No to Sharia in Yorubaland, Sharia will cause war, Sharia is constitutional blunder, we reject Sharia just to mention but a few.
However, they were prevented from moving round the streets as planned by the police inorder to avoid possible crisis.
Addressing Journalists, the leader Yoruba, Regional Alliance Worldwide, Opeoluwa Akinola alleged that the struggle to introduce Sharia into Yoruba land is an attempt to cause chaos and disharmony saying the practice does not represent her values.
Akinola noted that the Yoruba people irrespective of their religions, have co-existed peacefully for generations without the sharia penal code wondering what the Sharia law introduction is going to achieve that the existing penal codes and legal systems operative in Yoruba land cannot.
He said:”We totally reject and condemn the proposed inauguration, while calling on the Ekiti State government and relevant authorities to forestall the impending catastrophe by immediately putting a stop to any further preparations by the Supreme Council for Shari’ah in Nigeria to inaugurate the Sharia pannel in Ekiti state and in any other part of Yoruba land.
“What positive advantage has Sharia contributed to the economy and wellbeing of the indigenous of the 12 northern states where it’s been practiced? the affected states are still been overwhelmed with poverty, out of school children insecurity and child molestation.
“For decades, Muslims from the north of Nigeria have been attempting to export their brand of political Islam which allegedly espouses violence, intolerance, Jihad and the anachronistic Sharia Islamic code into Yorubaland.
“We call on all Yoruba Muslim organisations, Christian Associations, Isese and other Ibile traditional worshipers and Ifa adherents to come out in virulent condemnation of the move as they want to cause a schism in the age old harmonious relationships between all our people in Yoruba land.
In an interview, the chairman Yoruba Nation Religious Council (YONAREC), Comrade Oluwafemi Edafemi, said the group is opposed to the introduction of the Islamic legal system known as Sharia into Yoruba land.
He said the proposal, allegedly championed by external religious fanatics from the North, with the collaboration of a few Yoruba Muslims, is not a representative of the cultural heritage of the Yoruba people.
He hereby call on all Yoruba people, both within and outside the nation, to resist the imposition and stand firm in protecting the unity, culture and freedom of the Yoruba Nation.
Others who spoke appealed to government to prevail on the Muslim community to rescind their decision on the introduction of Sharia in Yoruba land.