Ondo: Ikare Central Mosque Closed Down Indefinitely

By Ayodele Oni

To bring sanity and orderliness to the place of worship, Ondo State Government has ordered the closure of Ikare-Akoko Central Mosque to forestall breakdown of law and order.

The crisis started last week following moves by some people to remove the Chief Imam of the mosque. Security personnel had been deployed to forestall breakdown of law and order.

The state government also gave approval for public servants and students in both private and public schools in the state to wear native attires to office and schools on Fridays to promote culture and traditions.

The commissioner for information and orientation, Mrs Bamidele Ademola-Olateju, disclosed this on Tuesday during a media briefing shortly after the state executive council meeting.

Ademola-Olateju said the state exco made some far-reaching decisions on other important issues.

”The Council decided that from now on, every Friday, Workers in Ondo State would be required to wear traditional wears to work. And for students in the State, it is permissible from now on that they can wear traditional attires to school every Friday.

“We made some decisions on law and order within the state. We know there are disturbances around the Central Mosque in Ikare-Akoko. The council decided that the Ikare Mosque should be closed down with immediate effect.

“There would be no prayer offered in that mosque until there is resolution to the issue and the government would be inviting the parties involved in the dispute as well as the league of Imams to resolve the issue at stake.

“Those who trespassed in various locations on government land, their structures would be demolished completely. If you have anything on government land, go and remove them now.

“And those that are writing petitions claiming to be the owners of government land, the government will not tolerate that. So, the council has said those writing petitions to challenge ownership of government land, it won’t be tolerated by the government.

“In terms of environment, we made decisions on the use of plastic waste. The Exco made far reaching decisions and plans are underway to encourage the use of biodegradable materials and the recycling of plastics.

“We made some decisions on Chieftaincy also. The council decided that the petitions received would be reviewed by another commission to be set up soon.

“On budget, today we discussed extensively about budgeting going forward and we made decisions and approved the medium term expenditure framework for 2023/2025.”