The Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
Board of Trustees (BoT), Senator Wali Jubrin, on Tuesday called for a peaceful
dialogue over the controversy surrounding the alleged demolition of a Mosque in
Port Harcourt by the Rivers State Governor, Nyeson Wike, stating that the
continued grandstanding by all concerned will do no good to the issue.
The PDP BoT chairman, who is the Sarikin Musulimi
and head of Fulani in Nasarawa State, spoke to journalists against the threat of
the Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, and the former state Governor,
Ahmed Shekarau, to drag Wike to court over the demolition of the Mosque in Port
Harcourt.
Senator Jubrin said as an elder that he would not
sit at home and see issues that could be resolved through dialogue getting out
of hand with threats of instituting legal action over what could be resolved
through a peaceful dialogue.
The PDP leader said: "Whatever the Rivers State governor has
done or not done over the alleged demolition of the Mosque, the reactions of Ganduje and Shekarau
is too harsh to contemplate going to court and not going to court.
"We as Muslims need not tow the path which
Ganduje and Shekarau have taken. We need
to follow the part of peace and dialogue to resolve this misunderstanding,
knowing that in Nigeria, such road could lead to what we did not bargain for, as
it could degenerate to the extent of brewing and engineering crisis between
Muslims and Christians in the North and South.
"All efforts should be channeled towards a
peaceful resolution of this issue through dialogue. I, as a fellow Muslims,
urged my colleagues to adopt dialogue towards resolving this. There is already enough
tension in the country. The reason and whatever that has happened is capable
of hurting the already endangered peace in the country."
He gave the instance of an unbeliever in the days
of Prophet Mohammed who passed urine in a Mosque and was about to be lynched to
death but the prophet intervened and sued for peace.
The PDP BoT chairman promised to visit Wike and get
first-hand information on what actually happened, explaining that with proper
understanding, the Rivers State government may allocate another land for the
Muslim community in Port Harcourt to build a better mosque where the governor
might even contribute financially in building it.
In view of this, Jubrin urged all Nigerians to
emulate the peaceful coexistence in Sokoto State, the seat of the Caliphate
where Muslims and Christians coexist without crisis.
Therefore, he said: "All we need now in Nigeria
is religious harmony with peaceful coexistence of all religious groups. Nigeria
should not be a war zone, and be in the news for all the wrong reasons."
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