Iwo Muslims Protest Alleged Imposition Of Officials On Central Mosque

— Say Chief Ogundokun Lacks Authority To Appoint Officials For Muslim Community In Iwo

Scores of Muslim faithful in Iwo town , Iwo Local Government Area of Osun State, on Wednesday staged a peaceful protest against alleged imposition of some clerics as officials of the community central mosque by Chief Abiola Ogundokun.

The protesters comprising of men and women, majorly dressed in hijab, while some were in ‘purdah’, marched on the central mosque from different parts of the town with different placards, grounding vehicular movement for hours.

Some of the placards read; “Ogundokun is not Iwo central mosque BOT Chairman”, “Ogundokun risk contempt of court”, “Oluwo is the BOT chairman of Iwo Central mosque”, “No judgement empowers Ogundokun to appoint officers for Central mosque”, among others.

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.

Tella, while addressing the protesters 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 spelt 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.”

However, Shaikh Imran Adio, who was purportedly appointed as the Otun Ajanasi of Iwo, said, he and other officials were duly appointed.

He made reference to the letter signed by Chief Ogundokun as Chairman, Board of Trustee, Iwo Central Mosque, where Adio and three others as officials of the mosque.