The director-general, Centre for Justice on Religious and Ethnicity in Nigeria, Rev. Kallamu musa Ali Dikwa, has described as “false, mischievous, misleading and deceptive” of the public by the director, Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), Prof. Ishaq Akintola, over the demolished EYN Church in Maiduguri.
MURIC had revealed that the Borno state government actually demolished 11 mosques and four churches contrary to the claims that only churches were demolished in the state.
It stated that a team of investigators working with MURIC visited each of the sites where the mosques were demolished, interviewed residents and gathered photographs and data that showed locations of each of the 11 mosques and dates of their demolition by officials of the Borno state government for violation of purposes approved in residential titles, which was in compliance with a 2010 Government White paper in response to the 2009 Boko Haram insurgency, which strictly prohibited the conversion of any residential house to a place of worship, in all parts of Borno state.
In a statement issued Friday, Rev. Dikwa said the MURIC leader in his statement alleged that 11 mosques were demolished by the Borno state government, adding: “I never saw a professor concocting lies like this. I am an indigene of Borno state and Kanuri by tribe. The statement and claims by Prof. Akintola are false. Only in 2009 the Borno state govt demolished mosques belonging to Boko Haram leaders.”
“I have all the necessary documents on the judgement from the two courts of law with me. Therefore, If Ishaq Akintola uses lies to defend his religion, I am proving him wrong, l have lots of written documents to prove Prof. Ishaq wrong of all that he is saying, so he has to be very careful with his statement on what he knows nothing about.”
