BY MAYOWA SAMUEL
The Nigerian Baptist Convention has condemned the threat by an Islamic cleric in a viral video where he threatened “to impose Sharia law in Taraba State if Muslims are not given the chance to rule the state.”
In the viral video published on May 28 on Facebook by Taraba News, he urged Muslims in the state to stand up and take over political power.
The cleric was said to be delivering a Friday sermon when he was reacting to the emergence of Emmanuel Bwacha who is a Christian, as the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress during the party’s primary.
Also in another video recording published on May 29, the cleric said Muslims represent 65 percent of the state’s population, hence a Muslim needed to be the state governor.
Speaking to The Point in reaction to the video, spokesman of the national Baptist body, Eben Durodola since Nigeria is a secular state, anybody from any religion has the right to become governor, therefore no single individual had any right to impose anything on anybody.
The Christian cleric urged the people of the state and most importantly, the Islamic cleric to embrace peace, advising him to contest for any position in any of the existing political parties.
Durodola said, “Nigeria is a secular state and nobody has the power to give any threat, as far as whoever that will come in as the governor. If the candidates are Christians and none of them is a Muslim, they will impose Shariah? Well, we have been living under a Muslim president for years and nobody threatened.
“One person cannot impose anything on anybody on the state. They should just hold their peace. And if they know they want to contest for any position, we have more than 20 existing political parties. If they are popular, they should go and contest and let us see what will happen,” he advised.
Calling for the total disregard of the threat, the pastor stated, “It’s a threat that cannot hold water, as far as the constitution of Nigeria is concerned, and as far as the people of that state are concerned. I don’t think people should listen to them, they should ignore it.
Urging the law abiding people of the state “not to allow anybody to truncate the peaceful coexistence of the people in that area,” he added, “let’s wait and see how they are going to do it. Will they be the ones to appoint the judges and pay them?” he wondered.
The incumbent governor of the state, Darius Dickson Ishaku, a Christian, was sworn into office on May 29, 2015, and will be ending his second term in office in May 2023.
