Hijab Crisis: Group tasks Kwara govt to enforce policy in public schools
Some stakeholders in Kwara on Friday urged the state government to enforce its policy on wearing of hijab by Muslim girls in all government grant-aided secondary schools.
They made the call during a news conference in Ilorin following Thursday’s violence that erupted at Oyun Baptist High School, Ijagbo, in the Oyun Local Government Area of the state.
The stakeholders called for immediate closure of the school and relocation of the students to other schools pending the resolution of the crisis.
They advised the state government to set up a commission of inquiry to unravel those behind the attack on some Muslims in Ijagbo.
Speaking on behalf of the group, Alhaji Isiaq Albdulkareem, who was flanked by a lawyer, Ibrahim Agbaje, among others, alleged that one of the parents of a Muslim student of the school, Habeeb Idris, was killed during the fracas that also left 11 others injured.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that one person was feared killed during the Thursday fracas at the Oyun Baptist High School, Ijagbo.
Abdulkareem called on the Police to investigate the circumstances surrounding the crisis with a view to bringing the perpetrators to book.
Also speaking, Agbaje noted that the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) lost the two cases it instituted at both the lower and appellate courts on the issue of Hijab wearing by willing Muslim school girls in the state.
He also noted that, till date, there was no case instituted at the Supreme Court by CAN on the earlier judgments delivered by a Kwara High Court and the Court of Appeal.
The Kwara Government had on Jan. 25 restated its policy and directed management of schools in the state to allow the use of Hijab by willing Muslims without forcing it on anyone or turning them back for using it.
Some parents and their wards were on some major streets of Ilorin on Wednesday protesting against the management of Oyun Baptist High School, for turning back some students for wearing Hijab. (NAN)
