Image caption: Ogbomoso Central Mosque
JUST IN: Muslim leaders order Ogbomoso Central Mosque locked, insist Chief Imam ‘step aside’
Khalid ABRAHAM
There seems to be no taking off the foot from the throttle in the contentious matter of the Chief Imam of Ogbomosoland Sheikh Teliat Yinus Oluwasina Ayilara as Muslim leaders have reportedly ordered the Central Mosque Oja’gbo “padlocked.”
This move ogbomosoinsightonline.com learned is to prevent Sheikh Ayilara from leading the Jumat Service today.
According to an authoritative source a high-powered meeting of Muslim leaders was held Thursday where the decision was taken that the Chief Imam “step aside,” in view of the insistence by the Ayilara family whose term of Imamship is being used by Teliat Ayilara, that he is not a member of their family.
Recall the family has since last hammered that Teliat Ayilara is not a member of their family describing him as an “usurper” and so wants him out.
The Soun-in-Council, League of Imams and Alfas as well as other Muslim stakeholders were inundated with petitions demanding his removal.
The Ogbomoso Muslim Justice Forum under the leadership of Alhaji Taofeeq Lobanika also toed the line that he steps aside sermonizing that “usurpation is not Islamic and is haram.”
But the Chief Imam trudges on, he even challenged in court an advice by the Soun-in-Council for him to “step aside” and was granted a court injunction at the time, leading to the head of the Soun-in-Council then the Areago of Ogbomoso, High Chief Sobalaje Otolorin, to be harassed and called names allegedly by his supporters.
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With the installation of the new Soun Oba Ghandi Afolabi Olaoye, the matter assumed a new breath of life as petitions against the Chief Imam were renewed.
Series of meetings were held as a result culminating in an invitation to the mother of the Chief Imam last week Thursday to confirm the true background of his son.
The woman, said to be residing in Badagry, Lagos state, answered the summon but no official statement was issued as to what transpired at the meeting though many wild insinuations were made, one of which was that she denied her son’s biological relationship with the Ayilara family, which however could not be independently verified by ogbomosoinsightonline.com.
Following this, street protests were made by members of the League of Imams and Alfas on Sunday demanding the embattled Chief Imam “leave for his town” as they now claim he is “not even an indigene of Ogbomoso.”
Meanwhile, there are many Muslim faithful supporting the Chief Imam asserting that the position of Chief Imam should not be family restricted and that the major prerequisite should be “deep Islamic knowledge and versatility” which they profess Sheikh Ayilara possesses.
They also pointed to the “several groundbreaking transformations” he has effected in the physical structure and running of the Central Mosque, and is consequently seen as promoting the cause of Islam in the town.
So it became a matter of “right and expediency!”
However, the Muslim leaders in the community are now said to have requested the police to lock the Central Mosque today Friday, October 13, to prevent Sheikh Ayilara conducting the Jumat Service if he will not take the “honourable path of stepping aside.”
Among the leaders who reportedly took the decision are the highly influential Aare Musulumi of Ogbomosoland, Alhaji Abdulganiy Atanda Owodunni, the Asoju Musulumi Alhaji Minkaheel Yussuf, the Balogun Musulumi, Alhaji Abdulrasaq Bello and other notable leaders.
The leaders therefore urged Muslims in the community to observe the Jumat service in mosques close to their respective residences today pending the final determination of the matter.
