Sultan of Sokoto is far above your mischief, Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs tells fake news carriers

By BASHIR ADEFAKA

The Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) has described as mischievous reported statement on Islamisation of Nigeria, credited to the person of its President General and Sultan of the Sokoto Caliphate, His Eminence Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar.

The Council, which spoke through a release referenced NSCIA/HQ/PRS/084​​​​, dated 18th Ramadan 1446 AH equivalent to 18th March 2025 and signed by Imam Haroun Muhammad Eze, Esq, the NSCIA’s Deputy National Legal Adviser, wondered how Sultan that has been out of the country for the past two weeks would be linked with such a comment purportedly made by him in Nigeria while, in truth, he is away.

The DEFENDER reports that the Islamic Council’s reactionary statement might not be unconnected with recent mischievous information by some Yoruba traditional and ethnic leaders, who have tried to blackmail Muslims of the tribe for practicing Islam they said to be religion of the Fulani people.

To those “unpatriotic” people, the Fulani or Northern leaders are using the Yoruba Muslims under the Muslim unity to penetrate and recapture the entire Yoruba Land, a statement that many Muslims and sincerely patriotic non-Muslims in the land have knocked as senseless.

They cited examples from the standpoint of the fact that Islam is known to be a universal religion that emanated from Saudi Arabia with the Glorious Qur’an as its scriptural evidence of connection with divinity just like the Bible brought by Jesus Christ peace be upon him.

An exclusive comment from the Sultan of Sokoto Media Team has also knocked off the idea, even as a concerned Muslims in Akure, Ondo State capital anonymously told The DEFENDER that “The only reason this is going is because some traditional rulers are now up and alive to their rights and responsibilities as servants and vicegerents of Allah in their respective donemains and are saying, never again would anyone force them to satanic worship simply because they aspire to mount the throne that rightfully belong to them as princes of the Yoruba kingdoms.”

According to him, “The noise you see is simply an indication of self defeat because they see the awareness of some Yoruba Muslim Obas as eradicating of what they call Isese wherein they now say Satan is not a bad but righteous person and that, so long you are Yoruba, you naturally must worship him through all the divisions of Isese that they promote. But what is the concern of Muslims, who do not stop you from worshipping your idols, that you are stopping them from worshipping their Lord who says the only reason he created them is to worship him and do good work to humanity.”

It could be because they want to heat up the polity by provoking the Muslims, who represent half of Nigeria’s over 200 million population that they chose to cook up a story and tag it on the Sultan, who is the official leader of Muslims across all ethnic groups in Nigeria, it was gathered.

Muslims in Nigeria are inevitably united Islamic faithful by virtue of having unity of scripture, unity of direction of prayer (qiblah), unity of worship language and are bonded together in one string brotherhood universally and Sultan of Sokoto Caliphate is their leader.

In its reaction, titled, “BEWARE OF MISCHIEF MAKERS AGAINST ISLAM AND ITS LEADERSHIP IN NIGERIA”, the Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, through its Deputy National Legal Adviser Imam Haroun Muhammad Eze, a lawyer, urged all members of the public to decountenance the mischief being perpetrated by purveyors of such divisive information.

“The attention of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) has been drawn to a piece of mischievous information being circulated in the social media that falsely ascribed to the Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence, Alh. Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, CFR, mni a mischievous statement towards the now popular propaganda of Islamising Nigeria.

“This spurious information is not only baseless and unfounded but also malicious. The Sultan, who was purported to have made the statement, has been out of the country for the last two weeks.

“The Muslim community that the Sultan, by the grace of Almighty God, leads comprises of Muslims of all ethnic groups in Nigeria. It is therefore unimaginable that such an eminent leader could have uttered such abominable statement.

“While the Council would ordinarily not dignify the perpetrators of such a dastard act with a response, as it believes that every right-thinking person would discountenance it, we also see the need to educate the general public lest the information cause injury to the undiscerning minds.

“The Council calls on all Nigerians not only to disregard the publication but also to always verify the veracity of any information that comes their way before consuming and/ or circulating it.

“May Almighty Allah grant us peace and unity in Nigeria,” it prayed.