Sambo, Sultan, Oritsejafor, others lead discussion on security challenges

MAY 5, 2012 BY FRIDAY OLOKOR, ABUJA 42 COMMENTS

Vice-President Namadi Sambo
| credits: File copy

The Sultan of Sokoto and President-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar 111, will lead other top Islamic scholars and Christian leaders in a discussion on the solution to the present security challenges in the country.

The meeting is scheduled to take place during the annual national symposium of the Nasrul Lahi-il-Fath Society of Nigeria on the state of the nation, with the theme, ‘Islam and peaceful co-existence in a contemporary multi-religious society’.

The national president of NASFAT, Alhaji Sheriff Yusuf, told reporters in Abuja on Friday that Vice President Namadi Sambo would be the special guest of honour while the Director of Discover Islam in Bahrain, Sheik Essam Ishaq would be the guest speaker.

Yusuf said prominent Muslim and Christian leaders, top government functionaries, and other eminent Nigerians were expected to attend the event.

He said, “We decided to stage the symposium in view of the threat to national security and peaceful co-existence by the current Boko Haram phenomenon in our dear country and the tendency of this crisis to taint the Muslim Ummah and misrepresent some pristine Islamic principles, such as the Jihad.

“Part of the objectives of the event is to project the true perspective of Islam on the concept of Jihad in the midst of various tangential and extraneous opinions which are often confused with what the creed stands for and to locate the true reasons for religiously coloured strives in Nigeria with a view to proffering strategies for combating such government and other policy makers.”

Already, the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, has been invited to attend the event.

 SOURCE: The Punch - Nigeria's Most Widely Read Newspaper 5 May 2012.