The Vice President-General and Chairman, General Purpose Committee of Jamaatu Nasril Islam (JNI), Alhaji (Chief) Abubakar Orlu has debunked the claim that the Rivers State Government demolished the Rainbow Town Central Mosque In trans-Amadi area of Port Harcourt, contending that Governor Nyesom Wike never ordered such purported demolition.
Orlu, who made the clarification in a statement issued in Port Harcourt, said no Mosque was demolished in the first place, describing the claim that a Mosque was demolished by the State Government as spurious, malicious, untrue and unacceptable.
“No visibly constructed Mosque was demolished by the Rivers State Government. In the Islamic belief, however, anywhere muslims gather themselves to worship is a Mosque and should be respected by everyone,” he said, and lambasted the proponents of the fabricated story, saying that “ it is the ordinary imaginations of shameless persons who parade themselves as muslim leaders in the state.”
The leader of the South-East and South-South Muslim communities in Rivers State further noted that the issue at stake was not a mosque but the ownership of a land.
“Instead of telling the world the simplest truth that the Rivers State Government “Ordered them to stop work on its land,” They turned it upside down by blackmailing as well as continually assassinating the reputation of Governor Wike and his administration. No state in present day Nigeria loves Muslims more than the Rivers State Government. All the evil prayers they are offering against Governor Wike will not work, because he did not demolish any mosque,” he said.
In the face of the raging seeming controversy over the issue, the Muslim leader, however sued for calm, peace and dialogue, pointing out that “ Rivers State is the home for peaceful Co-existence between Muslims and Christians. We should, therefore, improve on that and remain calm as well as peaceful. People should live peacefully with one another in the state.”