An Islamic cleric, Sheikh Abdullahi Abdulhamid, has urged Nigeria’s acting President Goodluck Jonathan, to invoke relevant legislation to deal with the sectarian crisis across the country.

Abdulhamid, who is Chairman of the Lagos chapter of the Nigerian Muslim Council (NMA), told journalists in Lagos that the crisis required concrete efforts of the Nigerian government to end the hostilities.

“The crisis with its attendant human and material casualties has done more harm in Nigeria than terrorism has done in other parts of the world.

“The acting President can do the nation good by getting the crisis listed as a matter requiring urgent national attention in their Federal Executive Council (FEC) and Security Council meetings,” he said.

He argued that the crisis with its ethno-religious undertone if not properly checked could escalate to other regions and draw the country back in its socio-political and economic developmental efforts.

The cleric said the call became necessary in view of the serious challenges it posed to the build up and successive conduct of the 2011 general elections.

“The situation results in substantial amount of tax payers’ money being expended as security votes without fruitful result.

“The Federal Government should get to the root cause of the matter and fashion out an amicable solution to the crisis once and for all,” he said.

According to him, the Federal Government can use the same approach it adopted for the Niger Delta crisis to get those with weapons to surrender them to the government.

“We cannot continue to behave as if all is well when some parts of our country have been turned into a slaughter field,” he said.

Source African Press Agency

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