The leadership of the Northern Muslim youth preachers has called on the Sokoto State Government to drop its plan to depose the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III or balkanize his Emirate.

Speaking at a conference in Kaduna on Saturday, the Muslim group said that the Sultan’s position as the spiritual leader of all Nigerian Muslims shouldn’t be desecrated or disrespected by the government or politicians.

They described the Sultan of Sokoto as the pillar of Islam in Nigeria, advocating for the position to be made independent of the government whereby it will be protected from unnecessary political interference.

The Chairman of the Council of Northern Muslim Youth Preachers, Sheik Bashir Sani, who read the group’s position after the meeting, said Muslims in the country will not sit back and watch the seat of the Sultan being disrespected by the government of Sokoto State and therefore warned the government to desist from such acts.

“The image of the Sultan of Sokoto which is now being desecrated by some authorities is rejected by members of this conference because the Sultan is an Islamic pillar,” Sani said.

“He is a very important person and holds a position that represents all Muslims in this country. The Sultan is the one who leads the Muslim Ummah in our country. He holds different positions, by chairing the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, the Sultan Foundation and many more, like the National Mosque and the rest. So, this conference is trying to protect the image of the Sultan and the Sultanate Council and our traditional authorities.

“The conference is trying to inform and call the attention of our political authorities to consider the position of the Sultan as Supreme and an exalted position of the Muslim Ummah in this country. For it has to be respected and it has to be accorded all the recognition that it deserves. Therefore, we call on the government and other concerned authorities as well as political leaders to join hands with our traditional and religious institutions in order to promote peace, harmony and tranquillity in this country.”

Although the Sokoto State Government has denied any plan to depose the Sultan, other members of the Northern Muslim group including Sheik Abubakar Shanono and Sheik Mohammed Adams said they will use all legal means to protect the Sultan of Sokoto from being removed from office. They therefore advocated assigning constitutional roles to the monarch and making him independent of the government.

Sheik Shanono said: “The sultan is a father to all Muslims in Nigeria, not even in Nigeria alone, but in West Africa, something about politics shouldn’t touch the Sultan’s Palace or the Sultan himself.

“So, we are calling on all the politicians that are trying to politicise the issues regarding the Sultan and other Emirs in Northern Nigeria to know that we Muslims respect these people. And we believe that touching them is touching our religion. So, we call on them to take out their politics from the traditional institutions.

“It is also not true that the Sokoto State government is not plotting to remove the Sultan. We saw it on social media where they took a bill to the state House of Assembly trying to minimise the powers of the Sultan and some roles that the Sultan normally performs.

“We know it is true that the government is trying to undermine the Sultan. It is politics, maybe they felt the Sultan did something to them before they came into office, so they are trying to attack him.” (Channels TV)

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