Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has threatened that all Muslims would take a “drastically revolutionary measure” in Sokoto State should Governor Aliyu Ahmed proceed with a rumoured plan to depose Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar.
- The governor recently deposed 15 monarchs, and rumours swirled that Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar would be next.
MURIC director Ishaq Akintola said on Monday that Mr Aliyu should not give any thought to deposing the Sultan. He stated that the royal stool was sacred and that people looked up to the Sultan as both the traditional and Islamic authority for Muslims in Sokoto and across the country.
“MURIC advises the governor to look before he leaps. The Sultan’s stool is not only traditional. It is also religious,” Mr Akintola said in the statement on Monday. “In the same vein, his jurisdiction goes beyond Sokoto. It covers the whole of Nigeria. He is the spiritual head of all Nigerian Muslims.”
He said Muslims might be forced to take a more aggressive stance if their concerns were not heeded and added that “history will not be kind to” the governor.
“Governor Ahmed Aliyu should not force Nigerian Muslims to take a drastically revolutionary measure,” Mr Akintola threatened.
The MURIC director urged Sokoto State legislators to exempt the Sultan from any law allowing the governor to remove traditional rulers.
“It is tactless, reckless, myopic and senselessly audacious for any governor of Sokoto State who has the power to remove the Sultan of Sokoto and head of all Nigerian Muslims to actually use that power,” the MURIC director said.
