JUST IN: Suspended Abuja Imam Who Criticized Buhari Reacts As NGO Vows To Back Cleric

Sheikh Nuru Khalid, Chief Imam of Apo Legislative Quarters Mosque, Abuja has reacted to his suspension after describing President Muhammadu Buhari as a failure just as a Non-Governmental Organization has vowed to stand by him.

In a viral video, Khalid said the cleric, including himself, parents, community leaders and particularly President Buhari administration have failed the country.

He had said: “Is there nobody to take responsibility? I want to believe that we have all failed. I failed as an Imam to teach you that life is sacred. You all failed as parents to teach your children that killing is bad. Our Community leaders failed. Our politicians failed. Governors failed, especially his Excellency the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. You have failed us.

“Let me tell Mr President, under your watch bandits are demanding, are taxing Nigerians. Is that the provision of the constitution of Nigeria?
“Under the constitution, no one has a right to tax Nigerians except authorised by the Federal Government.”

Subsequently, the chairman of the mosque committee, Senator Saidu Muhammed Dansadau, told BBC Hausa that the cleric was suspended for “inciting public outrage’.

Responding to Jarida Radio about his next line of action, the cleric, also known as Digital Imam, said in an interview on Sunday that he will not oppose any decision by the committee.

“I will not oppose anyone, especially Senator Dan Sadau, he is an elder, I will not stand against him,” he said in Hausa.

Meanwhile, the Convener of Open Nigeria, NGO, Smart Madu Ajaja, has lauded the cleric for standing for the truth even when it is unpleasant to the government.

“We stand with Sheik Nuru Khalid for speaking up while most other Imams, mostly bigots and false prophets are protecting their own selfish interests as their country is being destroyed and their peoples perishing.

“Standing up for country via speaking truth to its powers is not blasphemous, but, a moral, spiritual, civic, constitutional and a patriotic obligation that every citizen owes his/her country in both its good and challenging times, because, true patriotism is never and must never be defined by the decree or the fiat of any government in power at anytime the way it has been done in Nigeria since independence,” the group stated in a Facebook post on Sunday.