Muslim Rights Concern challenges Adeleke on his promise to return mission schools to their original owners

ISLAMIC body the Muslim Rights Concern (Muric) has warned Osun State governor-in waiting Senator Ademola Adeleke to abandon plans to return mission schools to their original owners if he wins saying that the move will be biased in favour of Christians.

On Saturday, Osun State went to the polls to elect a new governor and in what was a cliff-hanger of an election, Senator Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) secured 254,698 votes, while Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola of the APC got 254,345 votes. Nigeria's Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec), declared the result inconclusive because it had cancelled 3,498 votes in seven polling units located in Osogbo, Orolu, Ife North and Ife South local government areas as a result of irregularities.

Tomorrow, a re-run will take place in these polling units with a victor expected to be declared on Thursday evening. Senator Adeleke remains in pole position to win the elections as he leads by 353 votes but the APC has not given up hope and is campaigning vigorously to turn things around.

However, aware of the likelihood of Senator Adeleke being declared winner, Muric director Professor Ishaq Akintola, has said his office has been inundated with complaints from its members in the state who fear a raw deal in the event of Senator Adeleke emerging winner after the re-run. Apparently, Senator Adeleke has promised to reverse a policy introduced by incumbent governor Rauf Aregbesola and return mission schools taken over by the state government to their original owners.

Professor Akintola said: “Our members are apprehensive as there is this information that Senator Adeleke pledged to return mission schools to their owners if he becomes governor of Osun. We don’t peddle rumours, so we are therefore using this medium to ascertain the veracity of the report, so the distinguished senator has ample time to issue a disclaimer now.

“The question is very simple, did you promise to return mission schools to their owners? The implications are very serious when considered against the background of the running battle over the mission schools between the Christians and Muslims in the state in the past eight years.

“To assure Nigerians that this is not just a conjecture of Muric or our concern alone, the Muslim community of Osun State had earlier raised the alarm on this matter. In a widely publicised press conference on the 8th September 2018, the president of the Osun State Muslim Community Alhaji Mustapha Olawuyi, addressed the matter.

In his statement, Alhaji Olawuyi said: "We are aware that this is a gimmick to swindle the public as you can’t return the property that belongs to all of us to a mission just because such schools bear mission names. We are all aware of massive investments of public fund in these schools after they had been taken over soon after independence with full compensation.

"We have told him to forget it and even if he has a pact with any group, it won’t fly. Any politician that tries it will regret it."

According to Professor Akintola, Muric sees this a big threat to religious freedom for Muslims if a candidate has entered into a pact with Christians leaders to return schools to the missions. he asked if Senator Adeleke has a pact with Christian leaders, what agreement does he have with the Muslims?

“He was only known as Senator Ademola Adeleke prior to his emergence as candidate but suddenly he became Nurudeen. Our strong suspicion is that this Nurudeen converted to Christianity a long time ago but he now finds it mandatory to portray himself as a Muslim in order to deceive gullible Muslims.

"He appeared on Eid ground during Salah but that should not surprise anyone because even Fayose attended Salah prayer wearing a turban. Why must politicians deceive Muslims this way? We charge Senator Adeleke to elucidate on this," Professor Akintola added.

Muric also raised issues on the wearing of  hijabs in public schools, asking  Senator Adeleke will allow female Muslims in the state to wear them if he becomes governor. Professor Akintola asked Senator Adeleke to provide answers to all these issues ahead of the election re-run, so the electorate can make informed decisions.