Imam, Muslim Community, others disown illegal OAU Muslim Students body
Feb. 28, 2017: The crisis rocking the illegal Muslim Students body at Obafemi Awolowo University took another dimension as stakeholders in the Muslim Community of the institution have publicly disowned the body by dissociating themselves from the activities of the group.
The stakeholders include Prof. Abubakr Sanusi, the Chief Imam of the OAU Central Mosque, Dr S.O Oseni as well as the Muslim Community of the Institution headed by Prof. Isiaka Aransi.
In separate letters addressed to the Dean of Students’ Affairs (DSA) and which were made available to newsmen, they stated that the activities of the group are not in tandem with dictates of Islam and that of the recognised and registered Muslim Students Society of Nigeria (MSSN) on campus headed by Hakeem Idowu of Public Administration Department.
Prof. Sanusi, who has been the Chief Imam and spiritual head of the institution for over 34 years, said his attention was drawn to the fact that a group of Muslim Students put his name on their letter head claiming that he is their staff adviser.
“This group of Muslim Students, who claimed to be MSSN, to me they are fraudsters”
” A number of individuals have called me to confirm if I am indeed a staff adviser to the group. As the spiritual leader of the Muslim Community, I was not contacted, even if they do, they know I do not share some philosophy of religion of Islam with them”, Imam stated in the letter to the DSA.
“The activities of the group led by one AbdulRasheed Bakare of Pharmacy department, are not consistent with the values and ethos of Islam and Muslim Community for which Allah has placed me as a leader”, Sanusi, a Professor Medicine insisted.
Sanusi said the only registered body of MSSN was the one headed by Hakeem Idowu as recognised by the MSSN at all levels from the Branch to the National.
In the same vein, Dr S.O. Oseni of Department of Animal Science in the Faculty of Agriculture expressed surprise and shock that the unregistered Muslim body led by the same Bakare, Alajiki Hakeem of Sociology and Anthropology Department and Ismail Abiodun of Demography and Statistics, have not had any communication whatsoever with him before they advertised his name as their staff adviser.
Oseni in his letter to the DSA averred that he does not support in anyway the vision and mission as well as the ideology of the said group. He further claimed that the use of his name on their letter head as a staff adviser without his consent is fraudulent, dishonest and “a major breach of protocol with legal implication”.
Similar letter of disclaimer had earlier been issued by Prof. Isiaka Aransi of Department of Local Government Administration and Chairman, OAU Muslim Community.
All the letters were copied to the affected students Head of Departments and Deans as well the the Muslim Community of OAU, Imam and the Chief Security Officer of the institution.
It will be recalled that the Muslim Alumni body, UNIFEMGA through its National President, Engr. Abdulwaheed Odeyimka raised an alarm over the existence of an illegal Muslim Students body on campus masquerading as the original and recognised MSSN.
A similar alarm was raised by the recognised MSSN Amir, Hakeem Idowu to the Acting Vice Chancellor and the DSA to quickly arrest the situation as the group was using the name of MSSN to perpetrate illegal activities on campus and extorting money from innocent Nigerians to execute its illegal programmes.