From Lateef Dada, Osogbo
Plans to settle the leadership crisis that led to the closure of Inisa Central Mosque in Odo-Otin Local Government of Osun State have been perfected as Muslims opened the mosque to observe Jumat prayer on Friday.
The Mosque was said to be closed after the death of one of the persons that contested the Imam and the subsequent threat by a group that nobody should observe solat prayer in the mosque.
The Deputy Chief of Staff to former Governor Adegboyega Oyetola, Abdullah Binuyo, who hailed from the town, in a statement on behalf of the government, sometime in May 2021, ordered the closure of the Mosque till peace is restored.
But a popular Islamic preacher from Ilorin in Kwara State, Sheik Ahmad Labeeb, who went to Inisa for a programme learned about the closure of the Mosque and insisted that it must be opened.
However, with joy, Muslims from Osun and Kwara states thronged the town to observe the Jumat prayer in the Mosque.
Speaking with the Journalists after the prayer, the state secretary of United Imams and deputy of the Supreme Council for Islamic Preachers in Southwest, Imam Abdulah Olohunlomerue, expressed displeasure over the closure of the mosque for so long.
He explained that the two aggrieved groups and other stakeholders would be addressed to settle the wrangling and make sure that the mosque is not closed again.
He appealed to the Muslims in Inisa to unite as brothers and sisters and avoid anything that could separate them.
According to him, an Imam from Oyan town in Odo-otin local government was appointed to lead the prayer while the position will rotate across the Osun central senatorial district pending the settlement of the crisis between the two warring groups.
“The Muslims in Inisa didn’t go to the mosque for a certain reason and we are at the point of getting to the root of that reason. By the Grace of God, before next week Friday, the Chief Imam of Osogbo who is the grand Imam of Osun state has promised to settle everything amicably.
“My message to the people of the town is that they should cooperate. United we stand and divided we fall. Let us toe the same line to have a lasting peace. Muslims are good symbols for others and we should not behave otherwise,” Olohunlomerue said.