—The face-off between Christian
and Muslim leaders degenerated,
yesterday, but the timely intervention of
Oluwo of Iwoland, Oba Adewale Akanbi,
saved what could have snowballed into
major religious crisis as some Christian
students of Baptist High School, Adeeke,
Iwo for the second day appeared in church
robes to attend classes for the day.
In defiance to Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s
warning on Tuesday that any student
found disobeying school rules and
regulations risk expulsion, some students
who arrived the school for the day’s
lessons in church robes were turned back
by security men manning the gate who
however allowed female Muslim students
who wore hijab as a complement to their
uniforms into the school premises.
However, some Christian leaders who
initially kept a safe distance watching the
unfolding event at this point moved to the
gate to ensure that their children also
gained access to the school premises.
The Christians eventually gained access
into the premises. Muslim leaders who
were around the school premises also
moved to the gate and a face-off ensued
between the two groups.
It was gathered that the paramount ruler
of the town, Oba Akanbi, stepped in by
personally visiting the school to douse the
tension by inviting both the Christian and
Muslim leaders to his palace for a
meeting.
The battle after a while, turned spiritual
as Christians in the state, yesterday,
organised an interdenominational prayer
where they offered prayers to God to
intervene on the issue of hijab and the
court ruling.
The prayer rally which was attended by
over 200 pastors and thousands of
Christian faithful across all denominations
in the 30 Local Government Areas of the
State including Ife East Area Office was
held at Dominion Hall of Osun Baptist
Conference, Gbodofon, Osogbo .
The prayer called by the State CAN
Chairman, Reverend Dr. Elisha Ogundiya
and led by his Vice, Pastor Moses Adedeji
Ogundeji, was meant to reject the court
ruling on hijab and other alleged
islamisation plot by the state
government.
Dr Ogundiya told Vanguard that the
prayer was also meant to seek for peace
from God and to "nullify anti-Kingdom
laws and dealings with satanic forces that
are tormenting the state for the past few
weeks".
Meanwhile, Baptist High School, Iwo
where students went to school, yesterday,
with various choir and church apparels as
well as hijab was condoned-off by the
police after it was shut by the state
government, as the Christian and Muslim
leaders held meetings with the Iwo
monarch, Oba Abdulrasheed Adewale
Akanbi to find solution to the impasse.
CAN condemns hijab ruling in Osun state
Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN,
yesterday, expressed disappointment over
recent High Court judgment in Osun State
on the use of hijab in all schools
including missionary schools, describing
the development as unfortunate which
may send a wrong signal that Osun State
Government is clearly favouring one
religion over the other.
The meeting which was well attended, had
in attendance the National Officers of the
Association, all the five Heads of blocs,
the zonal chairmen, the states chairmen
and delegates representing the five blocs
of the association; Catholic Secretariat of
Nigeria (CSN), Christian Council of Nigeria
(CCN) Christian Pentecostal Fellowship of
Nigeria/ Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria
(CPFN/PFN), TEKAN/ECWA, and
Organisation of African Instituted
Churches
Vanguard
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