The Kwara Muslim stakeholders have advised the State Government not to deny female Muslim students of their fundamental human rights by not allowing the usage of hijab as part of their uniform in public schools.
The group, in a statement by its chairman, Alhaji Is-haq Abdulkarim, which was made available to our correspondent in Ilorin on Monday, said the government should be proactive in its decision on female Muslim students’ uniforms.
Abdulkarim urged the government to ignore advice to emulate how a neighbouring state government handled the issue of hijab in its public schools, warning that doing such would be counter-productive.
He explained that “hijab is no longer a contentious issue as several superior Courts of record have ruled in its favour in Kwara, Osun and Lagos States – to mention a few; warning that Kwara State Government must enforce its lawful order of optional wearing hijab in all public schools as contained in its Circular issued since March last year.
Abdulkarim condemned the criminal acts of killing and maiming of innocent students and parents in Ijagbo and called on Kwara State Government not only to ignore the advice of that clergyman but to fish out the criminals that unleashed mayhem on the people at Oyun Baptist High School Ijagbo on Thursday 3rd of February, 2022 and get them arrested and prosecuted.
He said, “it was unfortunate that the State Government allowed some criminals to take over a public school for three weeks where female Muslim students were denied access to their school and the school was not shut until life was lost and people were maimed.”
He called for compensation for the life of 25-year-old Habib Idris who was killed and immediate compensation as well for those wounded and are being treated in various Hospitals in Offa and Oyun local government council areas.
“In any civilised Society, once there has been court judgement on any particular matter, there must not be violations; what is happening in Kwara State shows weakness of the Government in dealing with the matter of fundamental human rights of citizens and enforcement of law and Order”, he said.
He accused the police of bais, incompetence and dereliction of duty, adding, “where the security agents colluded with the criminals to turn students back home illegally and watching harmlessly without arresting criminals that were macheting them on the day ‘hell was let loose’! This would no longer be tolerated, he warned.”
Recall that Kwara state government last week instituted a 7 member committee to investigate the circumstances leading to the crisis at Oyun Baptist High School Ijagbo and gave the committee three weeks to conclude its assignment.
Meanwhile, the Ijagbo community has urged external forces feasting on the Hijab uniform crisis in Oyun Baptist High School to allow peaceful resolution of the matters leading to the unfortunate crisis.