Muslim Rights Concern Accuses SSS Of Promoting Religious Bigotry

 
The Muslim Rights Concern has described the Nigerian State Security Services (SSS) as unprofessional security outfit following statements issued by the agency urging all churches around the country to be alert and security conscious.
The group’s Director, Professor Ishaq Akintola, in a statement, stressed that the statement exposes the prejudice in Nigeria’s security circle against Muslim faithful:

“It is unprofessional and highly unethical for a security outfit of the status of Nigeria’s SSS to focus its attention on faithful of a particular religion. This call is totally out of place. It has hurt the sensitivity of Muslims who already feel oppressed, marginalized and unintegrated.”

He lamented that such statement does not augur well, especially in multi-religious country, adding that security agents must be seen to be neutral, stating that events in the last few years have proven that Muslims have been exposed to danger just like their Christian counterparts.
Akintola however, claimed that Muslims have lost more Imams to the Boko Haram marauders than Christians have lost their clerics.

“Who are those being massacred in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe today? How many Christians were among the 43 boarding house students killed by Boko Haram at the Federal Government College in Yobe State on 25th February, 2014? How many of the 129 girls abducted by Boko Haram on Monday, 14th April, 2014 are Christians?
“The truth of the matter is that both Christians and Muslims are victims of the Boko Haram onslaught and the security agencies should treat both groups equally. Both should be given a sense of belonging. Fighting terrorism is a collective effort. Our security agencies should not divide Nigerians along religious lines otherwise the battle will be lost before it begins” he revealed.

On this note, he advised that instead of calling on churches alone to be security conscious, he urged the SSS to call on all Nigerians to be at alert.
He recalled the event of the Nyanya bomb blast, stating that everyone is a target to the insurgents, which makes it glaring that everyone deserves protection.
Continuing, he stressed that, much emphasis should be laid on places of worship, but definitely not churches.

“We remind the SSS and other security agencies that apart from forming an integral and substantial part of the population of this country, Muslims are also tax-payers and they contribute their quota to the growth of the economy.
“We charge the National Assembly to investigate the mode of recruitment into Nigeria’s security agencies with a view to ensuring a balance between all religious and ethnic groups and for the records, we call the attention of the international dehumanization and suppression of the liberty of the Muslim persons and deliberate attempts to distance Muslims from civic activities in Nigeria,” Adetola said.