Ogun Muslim Community Clarifies Egbaland Chief Imam Suspension, Renders it Void
Ogun Muslim Community Clarifies Egbaland Chief Imam Suspension, Renders it Void
Following the news of the suspension of the Chief Imam of Egbaland, Alhaji Sa’ad Bamgbola last Monday, accused of “high-handedness, administrative exclusivity, mishandling of funds and conflicting of interest between his position as the Chief Imam and a membership of another association.
The chief Imam, speaking on behalf of the Muslim community after a meeting at Kobiti Central Mosque in Abeokuta on Tuesday, said the suspension of the grand Chief Imam was null and void.
The confusion reportedly started after some notable aggrieved Egba Muslims chiefs led by the former military administrator of Bauchi State, Navy Captain Rasheed Raji (RTD.), declared the Chief Imam suspended and immediately appointed a second-in-command.
Reacting to the Bamgbola’s suspension, three principal Chief Imam, comprising of Imam of Owu, Gbagura and Oke-Ona Egba, Alhaji Kehinde Sulaimon; Professor Kamaldeen Balogun and Alhaji Muslimudeen Nasirudeen, who make up the other three sections of Egbaland, faulted the purported suspension of the grand Chief Imam of Egbaland.
Balogun said the suspension was ill-conceived and capable of causing a religious war in the town, insisting that the four sections that make up Egbaland must be carried along in the appointment or suspension of the Chief Imam. According to them, only the council of Islamic clerics in the town has the power to appoint or suspend the Chief Imam.
“We, the Chief Imam of Oke Ona, Alhaji Muslimudeen Nasirudeen, Chief Imam of Gbagura, Prof. Kamarudeen Balogun and the Chief Imam of Owu, Alhaji Kehinde Suliamon on behalf of all Egba Muslims hereby pass a vote of confidence on the Chief Imam of Egbaland, Alhaji Alade Bamgbola as the only custodian of Islamic religion in Egbaland.
“The Chief Imam of Egbaland, Alhaji Bamgbola, should by virtue of all the principal Imams in Egbaland and by virtue of the position that you have taken here, the Imams and Alfas continue to carry out all the spiritual functions of the Islamic region without any hindrance,” the clerics maintained. The clerics, instead, declared that all the Egba Chiefs who took part in the suspension of the Chief Imam are all suspended.
