Abuja Chief Imam Suspended For Criticizing Buhari over Nigeria Insecurity Challenges

Date of Occurrence

April 4, 2022
State/Country

Abuja, Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria

Image

Description

Sheikh Nuru Khalid suspended Chief Imam of Apo Legislative Quarters Mosque, Abuja, has said that God is the owner of power and dictates whom he gives. Sheikh Khalid was suspended after delivering a sermon on insecurity on Friday. In the sermon, he flayed the government over its failure to tackle the rising insecurity and killings in the country. The imam hinted at some measures that the electorate should devise should the authorities fail to protect lives. Khalid asked the electorate not to vote for any politician who cannot guarantee them the safety of lives and property. “The condition of the Nigerian masses is one, stop killing us, go to the polls, let us be killed, we will not go to the polls, since you have nothing to do but vote,” Khalid had said.

The mosque committee suspended the Sheikh afterward. Defending the action, Senator Saidu Muhammed Dansadau, chairman of the committee, accused the Sheikh of inciting public outrage. “I am informing you that you have been suspended from leading prayers in the Apo Legislative Quarters Mosque from today being April 2nd, 2022 until further notice.” “The decision was taken out of the inciting Friday sermon you delivered on April 1st, 2022, where you advised people not to vote come 2023 general elections unless politicians respond to some critical questions. “You should have advised them to vote out those that transgress the Almighty and breach people’s social contract as well as the state,” Dansadu said in a notice to Sheikh Khalid. But on Sunday, the Sheikh said he was unperturbed about the suspension. The cleric said God is the owner of power and dictates whom he gives. “O, God! The master of sovereignty, you give sovereignty to whom you please and seize sovereignty from whom you please, your honor whom you please and you abase whom you please, all good is in your hands, indeed you have power over all things,” Khalid said, vowing to continue speaking the truth, daring those who perceived his sermon as inciting to show evidence.

Actions Taken

Suspended Abuja Chief Imam, Sheikh Khalid, Finally Sacked for Telling Buhari the Truth.

Sheikh Khalid said Buhari who visited Kaduna many times during election campaigns to solicit votes had refused to visit the state after a Kaduna-bound passenger train was attacked and the occupants were either killed, abducted, or maimed by bandits.

For not “showing remorse” and recanting, the Chief Imam of Apo Legislative Quarters Juma’at Mosque in Abuja, Sheikh Nuru Khalid, who was earlier suspended has now been sacked by the Mosque’s Steering Committee for criticizing President Muhammadu Buhari last Monday night’s attack on an Abuja-Kaduna train.

Sheikh Khalid was initially suspended by the Steering Committee of the strategic mosque.

But on Monday afternoon, the Mosque’s Steering Committee declared him sacked.

They said he was sacked because he has not shown any remorse over his comment on the train attack and criticism of President Buhari.

When contacted, Sheikh Khalid said he has not been given any letter to that effect.

Khalid had after his suspension, vowed to continue speaking what he described as the truth to power.

All efforts to get the head of the Mosque’s steering Committee were futile.

Sheikh Khalid was suspended after last Friday’s sermon, during which he criticized President Muhammadu Buhari over last Monday night’s attack on a Kaduna-bound train that left from Abuja.

The chairman of the Mosque Steering Committee, Senator Sai’du Dansadau, said the Sheikh was suspended for what he called inciting sermon on Friday, April 1, 2022, against Buhari.

Many Nigerians criticized the committee for the action.

But rather than backpedaling, they decided to sack him on Monday for not being remorseful.