Dahiru Abubakar, an Imam of a mosque in the Madina sections of Bauchi city has been sacked from his position for campaigning for the re-election of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The imam was claimed to have been secretly advocating for Tinubu’s re-election during preaching after every compulsory prayer, Daily Trust said.
However, he was suspended after repeating the act following the early morning prayer (Subhi) on Sunday.
After prayers, he would convince the audience that insecurity was not caused by Tinubu and that he should be re-elected.
“He did the same thing last weekend and a committee was set up and he was subsequently removed,” a source claimed.
He said, “I have been telling the people in my preaching that President Tinubu was not the problem as the hardship and insecurity were caused by “end times phenomenon.”
He stated, “I am preaching to the people, to stop castigating President Tinubu on the insecurity and the economic challenges. They were ready to vote for him and give him another term in 2027 to extend his term.
“I was preaching to the people to accept the fear of God and stop blaming the leaders for the insecurity, especially President Tinubu, because only the intervention of God can stop the challenges with the power of prayers, and that did not go down well with the committee of the mosque.
“My priorities in preaching are fear of God and our daily activities. I gave examples of what is happening, notably insecurity in African countries like Sudan, Chad, Mali and others confronting catastrophe. “I asked if President Tinubu was responsible for their insecurity.
The incident was confirmed by the head of the mosque committee, Imam Abubakar Jibrin who stated, “Our problem with him was not only his campaign for Tinubu but the way and manner he gathered many people in front of the mosque and sometimes entered the mosque deliberately to discuss politics.”
He said: “The mosque committee sat down with him and warned him not to turn the mosque into a political platform because of the Quranic verse which says the Mosque is solemnly for worship of Allah alone. We were totally opposed to the usage of the mosque for political meetings. We’ve told him numerous times, not once or twice but we haven’t been listened to.
“We believe that politics is the process of producing leaders in the country but there are laid down procedures which are political parties and the activities should take place in their political party offices and not in the mosque.”
Jibrin also explained that besides campaigning for the president, he was also demanding a change in the name of the mosque from Abdullahi Bin Zubbair mosque to Masjid Imam Bola Ahmed Tinubu mosque.
The mosque is the community’s, hence all the committee members said “no”. This mosque has a committee of which I am a member and when he insisted, we rejected the notion and determined that the mosque name will remain Masjid Abdullahi Bin Zubbair. The committee had removed Abubakar from the position and would not reinstall him, Jibrin added.
He should go and build his own mosque or politicians should go and buy him a mosque, that is not our concern. “Let me clarify that we, the mosque committee members, have no opposition to the candidate of any political party. “We are praying to Allah to choose the best for the country, whether it is President Tinubu or any of the candidates among the presidential candidates that would become a blessing for the country,” Jibrin said.
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