There was wield jubilation in Inisha town in Odo Otin local government area of Osun state today as the Muslim central mosque that has been under lock and key for almost five years reopened for jumat prayer.
The reopening of this mosque was made possible through the efforts of the popular Ilorin based Islamic scholar Sheik Labeeb Lagbaji who called the attention of other Muslim scholars and the whole world to the crisis rocking the Muslim community in the town and which led to the closure of the central mosque for almost five years.
According to the Information available to our reporter,the crisis broke up after the demise of the former Imam of the central mosque whose Naib imam shown intention to succeed him after his demise and which also received the blessings of majority of the indigenes most especially the youths in the town. But this did not get the blessing of some people in the town,especially the Olu of Inisha who is a Christian by faith. The Olu of Inisha did not support the choice of the majority of the community but the majority decision prevailed and the Naib imam took over but,died mysteriously after leading the Jumat prayer once. Since then,the mosque had been under lock and key for the fear of observing the prayer and die like the late former Naib imam of Inisha.
Sheik Labeeb Lagbaji having got the information,swung in to action and visited the town for what Muslim call Dawah and made all efforts to reach out to other Muslim scholars like Sheik Olohunlomerue from Ede in collaboration with the Osun state league of Imam and Alfa in making sure they waded in to the crisis and start the reconciliation process immediately.
This reconciliation process has started yielding positive results with the Constitution of reconciliation committee that will look in to the circumstances surrounding the crisis and also proffers solution to it.
One of the steps taken is nomination of an Alfa from Oyan,the neighboring town to start leading Jumat prayers pending the final resolution of the crisis among the warring factions.
Sheik Labeeb Lagbaji in one of the efforts made to reopen the central mosque visited the Olu of Inisha in his palace in the company of other Sheiks among whom is Sheik Olohunlomerue to seek for the palace support and cooperation. After visited the palace and meeting with the Osun league of Imam, the central mosque was reopened and Jumat service was conducted today Friday 1st of December 2023.
The people of Inisha both Muslims and Christians are in joyful moods throughout the periods when the process started and when the Jumat prayer was eventually observed with mammoth crowd.
The constituted committee promised to do justice to all parties involved in the dispute and come up with their reports very soon.
AdabanijaGlobal reporting
