Muslim Youths Decry Fayose’s Christmas Gifts To 20,000 Ekiti Children

Ahead of the 2017 Christmas celebration, the National Council of Muslim Youth Organisations, (NACOMYO) has decried Governor Ayodele Fayose’s Christmas clothes gifts to 20,000 children in Ekiti State.

The group in a statement described the move as an attempt to elevate one religion over another.

Describing the gesture as “unacceptable and a breach of Section 10 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended)”, the group insisted that the section provides that “the Government of the Federation or of a state shall not adopt any religion as state religion.”

A statement by its State Coordinator, Alhaji Tajudeen Olutope Ahmed read, “our commonwealth as a state is being used to promote a particular religion and to placate the subscribers of the religion.

“It is on the basis of the above that we hereby call on Governor Fayose to suspend his planned celebration of Christians and Christianity during the forthcoming Yuletide period.

“In the alternative, if the governor is determined to go ahead with his planned provision of Christmas dresses, he should disclose the budget for the dresses to the public and be ready to expend the same amount during the forthcoming Muslim festival. This is the justice of the matter.”

In his reaction, the governor’s Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Idowu Adelusi said Fayose has been fair to all religions in the state.

He said: “the governor has been fair to all religions in the state; he has never for once discriminated against any religion.”

“During Muslim festivals, the governor distributes ram and even goes to the mosque to felicitate with them. Have you heard the Christians complained about it once? I don’t see why the Muslims should complain and in any case, if there should be a screening of the children given clothes, not all of them will be Christians. Some of them will be Muslims, while some will be Christians because it is free. So, those raising dust over this gesture have no point at all”, he said.

Fayose said: “As a government, we must be seen to be caring, not by mere saying it but by practice. Part of our duty is to give our kids a sense of belonging.

“We are bound to provide some happiness for them at a yuletide such as this. We are providing Christmas clothing for over 20,000 of our kids. We will raise it to 100,000 by next year as I am very sure the next governor will come from my party PDP.”