By KEMI KASUMU
The Muslim Media Watch Group of Nigeria (MMWGN) has called on all Muslims, irrespective of gender, to take advantage of the on-going voters registration exercise being conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to register as the opportunity to do so will end on Sunday 31st July, 2022.
This was as it also congratulated the Islamic faithful on the occasion of their new Islamic Calendar Year that begins Saturday July 30, 2022.
In a press statement issued and jointly signed Friday by National Coordinator and National Secretary of the Group Malam Ibrahim Abdullahi and Dr. Nasir Balogun, the Group stressed the importance of the exercise, which it said also includes opportunity for voters in the forthcoming general elections to change their polling units due to movement of people from where they were voting before to a new polling zones.
The Group recalled many such opportunities in the past the INEC had given for these purposes, adding that those who fail to register between now and Sunday might not be able to vote in the February and March 2023 Federal and state elections in the country.
It called on all eligible voters to keep their voter’s card properly, “otherwise whoever registered but unable to produce his voter’s card would not be allowed to vote or stay in the polling zones.”
Meanwhile, the Muslim Media Watch Group of Nigeria has congratulated Muslims all over the world on the occasion of the end of Islamic Calendar Year 1443 AH this Friday 30th Dhul-Hijja, 1443 AH.
In its message, the Group charged all Muslims to enter the New Islamic Calendar Year 1444 AH with piety, obedience to Allah’s commandment and good deeds.
The Islamic body maintained that without Almighty Allah’s benevolence, many would not have witnessed the New Year, adding that “the best way to show appreciation to our Creator and Sustainer is to resolve to do all that Allah has commanded true believers to do and avoidance of all sins no matter how little.”
The Group also emphasised the need for fervent prayers especially now, it said, that the country is witnessing unprecedented insecurity, economic difficulty, unemployment, and unbridled corruption among others, so that the nation could witness positive turn-around soonest for the betterment of the Nigerian society at large.
The MMWG urged Muslims, old and young, males and females, to troop out in large numbers to celebrate Hijrah 1444AH in their respective states.
“The celebration according to the Group will come up in Ilorin tomorrow at the Kwara State Stadium Complex Ilorin beginning at nine o’clock in the morning while other States have fixed their own celebrations for coming Saturday and Sunday.
“Hijra marked a turning point in history of Islam which commemorates the movement of the Holy Prophet Muhammad from Makkah to Madinah – One Thousand Four Hundred and Forty-Four Years ago – which signified the spread of Islam to the entire globe,” the group said in its statement dated 29th Dhul-Hijja, 1443 AH equivalent to 28th July, 2022 CE.
