Protest erupted in the ancient town of Iwo, in the Iwo Local Government Area of the State of Osun on Wednesday.
The protesters who are mainly Muslims were protesting the alleged imposition of some clerics as officials of the town’s central mosque. They marched on the central mosque from different parts of the town with different placards, grounding vehicular movement for hours.
They were led by the ‘Asiwaju Musulumi of Iwoland’ and the Chief Imam, Alhaji Liadi Tella, and Sheikh, AbdulFatai Olododo among other leaders, they insisted that Chief Abiola Ogundokun lacked the authority to appoint officials for the Muslim community in the town.
“Ogundokun is not Iwo central mosque BOT Chairman”, “Ogundokun risks contempt of court”, “Oluwo is the BOT chairman of Iwo Central mosque”, “No judgment empowers Ogundokun to appoint officers for Central mosque”, among others were some of the slogans on their various placards.
While addressing the protesters, the Chief Imam, said, “The attention of the generality of Muslims of Iwo, Osun State, Nigeria has been drawn to some announcements making the rounds and credited to a certain Chief Abiola Ogundokun, which purport to fill some non-existent vacancies in the Iwo Central Mosque, including stating the hierarchy of such positions. We hereby state that:
“We publicly declared that Chief Abiola Ogundokun does not possess any power to appoint anyone as a holder of any office in the Iwo Central Mosque; the roles of the Board of Trustees for the Mosque are clearly spelled out in the registered Constitution of the Iwo Central Mosque, and such roles do not include the power to appoint anyone as a holder of any office in the Iwo Central Mosque.”
