The Southern and Middle Belt Youth Leaders Assembly, COSMBYLA, has reacted to allegation levelled by Muslim Rights Concern, MURIC against Governor Samuel Ortom, his Oyo, Rivers and Taraba States counterparts, Seyi Makinde, Nyesom Wike and Darius Ishaku, claiming they are haters of Muslims in Nigeria.
DAILY REPORT NG had earlier reported that MURIC’s Director, Professor Ishaq Akintola, accused the governors of working against Muslims in their states.
Reacting, in a statement made available to journalists by its President General, Goodluck Egwu Ibem, COSMBYLA cautioned MURIC against defaming the governors.
According to the statement: “The attention of the Coalition of Southern and Middle Belt Youth Leaders Assembly, COSMBYLA, has been drawn to a cheap political blackmail wherein the group director of Muslim Rights Concern, MURIC, Professor Ishaq Akintola falsely accused the executive governors of Rivers State, Barr. Nyesom Wike; the executive governor of Oyo State, Governor Seyi Makinde; the executive governor of Benue State, Dr Samuel Ortom; and the executive governor of Taraba State, Governor Darius Ishakuof being Muslim haters.
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“Such statement by the Islamic cleric is a defamation of character and character assassination of the persons involved. People who are leaders should be mindful of their utterances in public so as not to cause disaffection among Nigerians which might lead to a breakdown of law and order.
“A leader and elder should exhibit wisdom and maturity in words and character at all times. The statement by the Islamic cleric falsely accusing these great leaders is not befitting of a man of his standing.
“It is quite unfortunate that such unfounded and hasty conclusion is coming from a man who should know better about the dynamics of governance and the people he mentioned are men of proven track record of integrity, diligence, due process, detribalised, professionalism and good administrative acumen that will not allow themselves to be involved in any form of religious or ethnic profiling.
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“Though we do not speak for any political party, the accusation by the Muslim cleric suggests clear political profiling. All the governors he mentioned in his statement are all Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, governors who have performed very well in their various states. This is politics at work here.
“The entire attack on these dynamic governors is purely an attempt to drag their hard-earned reputation to the mud and at the same time score cheap political points.
“If Ishaq was speaking out of patriotism and love for his country, he should have also named some governors who are Christian haters taken into cognizance that Nigeria has two major religions and other religions as well. But he decided to be lopsided in his assessment of religious haters.
“In Benue State, for instance, the executive governor of the state Dr. Samuel Ortom appointed 16 Muslims who are not indigenes of the state into his cabinet most of whom are of the Fulani tribe. If he hates Muslims as Ishaq wants us to believe, will he have appointed these persons into his cabinet?
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“The answer is no. For doubting Thomases who may have believed Ishaq’s false alarm, below are some of the names of those appointed by Governor Samuel Ortom in Benue State.
‘ Shehu Tambaya (SSA On Animal Husbandry, Yusuf Mohammed Magaji (SSA on Community Relation, Ali Mohammed Baba (SA on Community Relation, Shamsiya Adamu (SSA on Community and Public Relation, Haruna Anas (SSA On ICT), Lawal Isa (SSA on Islamic and Hajj affairs, Hajara Toski (SSA On Community Relation, Musa Abdullahi Plato (Chairman Muslims Pilgrims Welfare Board), Mustapha Ibrahim (Sec. Muslims Welfare Board), Dr.Habib (Chief Imam, Central Mosque) Member, Muslims Pilgrims Welfare Board, Dangiwa Imam (Member Muslims Pilgrims Welfare Board, Labaran Tanko (Counselor, North bank 2, Minister (Counselor Central South/Mission Ward, Leader Makurdi Local Govt), Alhaji Mallam (Counselor Market/Clark Ward), Isa (PSA on Project Monitoring), Hauwa Nagogo (Supervisory Counselor on Finance).
“Without any equivocation, we make bold to say that the governors are not working against Muslims in their States but are performing their constitutional duties as required by law and constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria which they swore to protect.
“We challenge Professor Ishaq Akintola to publish the names of Christians appointed by governors who are Muslims in their various states, let’s see who the real haters are.
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“We call on the governors of Rivers, Oyo, Benue and Taraba States to disregard the poor sense of judgement of the Islamic cleric who wants to generalize a private matter as a public matter”.
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