Nigeria’s Vice President Kashim Shettima has warned the Sokoto State Government of the consequences if Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar III is deposed, even as the Executive Director of Muslim Rights Council (MURIC), Prof. Isiaq Akintola cautioned the state governor.
Speaking at the North West Peace & Security Summit in Kaduna on Monday, June 14, Shettima said the Sultan of Sokoto must be guarded at all cost.
“In all developmental issues in this country, His Eminence, the Sultan of Sokoto, I want to use him as a point of reference to recognise and appreciate all our royal fathers present here,” Shettima began.
“And to the deputy governor of Sokoto, I have a simple message for you, Yes, the Sultan is the Sultan of Sokoto, but he is much more than that; he represents an idea, he is an Institution, that all of us in this country need to jealousy guard, protect, promote, preserve and project for the growth of our nation,” Shettima said.
Akintola had earlier raised the alarm that the Sokoto government is allegedly plotting to depose the Sultan.
Akintola said: “Feelers in circulation indicate that the governor may descend on the Sultan of Sokoto any moment from now using any of the flimsy excuses used to dethrone the 15 traditional rulers whom he removed earlier.
“MURIC advises the governor to look before he leaps. The Sultan’s stool is not only traditional. It is also religious. In the same vein, his jurisdiction goes beyond Sokoto. It covers the whole of Nigeria. He is the spiritual head of all Nigerian Muslims.
“Therefore, any governor who tampers with the stool of the Sultan will have Nigerian Muslims to reckon with because the Sultan combines the office of the Sultan of Sokoto and that of the President General of the NSCIA.”
