NSCIA petitions against South East Pastor over alledged inciting sermons

‌A Muslim apex body, the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), has petitioned the Federal government and the Department of State Services to immediately interrogate Rev. Fr. Godfrey Igwebuike Onah over alleged hateful sermon.

The body claimed that Rev. Onah had incited violence against Muslims in the South East and South geopolitical zones through his sermon.

In a separate letter to the Inspector General of Police and the Department of State Services, NSCIA insisted that Onah’s sermon led to death of Muslims and destruction of properties in the South East and South-South.

The petition titled: ‘Complaint on Rev. Father Godfrey Igwebuike Onah’s hateful sermon and its consequent murder of Muslims and destruction of their property in the South-East and South-South zones of Nigeria’, was signed by the Deputy Secretary General of the NSCIA, Prof. Salisu Shehu, obtained by journalists in Abuja on Tuesday.

NSCIA had in a letter dated 6th October, 2020 called on security to protect the lives, property and places of worship of Muslims living in the South-East and South-South, saying there were planned attacks.

“In the said letter, we informed you about the violent assaults being unleashed on the Muslims in some parts of the zones. Some were killed and their property worth billions of Naira were looted, vandalized or set on fire.

“Mosques, including very ancient ones built by Indigenous Igbo Muslims, were burnt. Rather than abating, the persecution and violence against Muslims in the said two zones have persisted with greater intensity.”

The NSCIA maintained that Bishop Onah’s sermon was laced with fallacies, which some Christian bigot used to wreack and launched attack on peaceful Muslim in Nsukka and burnt their mosques on 31st October, 2020.

Shehu who signed the petition on behalf of the Sultan of Sokoto, Saad Abubakar III, said, number of casualties in Nsukka’s attack has not been confirmed yet.

To buttress a point, pictures of burnt mosques and the sermon were attached to the petition, insisting that the sermon led to the crisis.

“It would therefore require any disagreement, no matter how minute, to execute the premeditated havoc wreaked on the Muslims in the two zones.”

The petition added that the recurrence of the kinds of incessant arson and massacre of Muslims in the south-east and south-south if left unchecked could ignite reprisals in other parts of the country, especially the North.