The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has asked Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State to remove his name from a mosque he recently rebuilt in the Iwo Road area of the state Capital, Ibadan.
The mosque, known as Adogba Central Mosque was demolished by Makinde in 2020 but was recently rebuilt and renamed after the governor.
In a statement issued on Saturday, the group’s Executive Director, Professor Ishaq Akintola, maintained that Makinde has no moral right to name the mosque after himself because it was a replacement of the original mosque which was demolished by him.
MURIC advised the governor to effect the change before the gubernatorial election on Saturday to avoid protest vote.
The statement partly reads; “The governor has rebuilt the mosque in another location but he renamed it after himself. We are shocked to our marrows. What audacity! It is desecration of our place of worship. We cannot worship Makinde. We will worship Allah alone. It would have been right if he had not destroyed our mosque ab initio. But now we can still ask him ‘Where is our mosque?’ It is highly immoral. His action also lacks tact.
“Makinde can only be justified to name the mosque after himself if the money spent on its construction belonged to him personally. He needs to prove that to us but he has not. He used our common patrimony. That money belongs to the tax payers of Oyo State. It is not Makinde’s money. Therefore he has no moral right to name the mosque after himself. It is daylight robbery. It is abracadabra: the more you look, the less you see. Makinde has robbed Peter to pay Paul.
“Apart from the immoral angle, the governor has exhibited ulterior motive. Even the timing of the completion of the mosque was calculated to coincide with the 2023 electioneering period. Seyi Makinde has played on the intelligence of the Oyo State Muslim community. It is outrageous.
