Kano State government says it has banned a prominent Islamic scholar, Sheikh Abduljabbar Nasiru Kabara, from preaching in the state.
It also orders the immediate closure of his mosque, housing his school and library.
Announcing the decision in Kano after the state executive council meeting on Wednesday, the state commissioner of information, Muhammed Garba, said the decision was informed by “security concern.”
Sheikh Abduljabbar is the leader of a Qadiriyya brotherhood movement’s As-habul Kahfi Warraqeem in Nigeria.
The commissioner said there was no any political underdone behind the ban, adding that a committee has been set up to investigate the matter.
The commissioner accused the cleric of ‘inciting preachings’ capable of breaking law and order in the state.
The state commissioner of police has been directed by the state government to ensure strict compliance with the order.
Sheikh Abduljabbar has been at loggerheads with a segment of Salafi and Sufi clerics in the state who view his method of preaching – a sort of fact-checking reported sayings of Prophet of Islam and historic events in Islam – as outright attack on the companions of the prophet.
The allegations the cleric has severally denied.
There was no immediate response from the cleric who uses social media platforms to broadcast his preachings.
A student of the cleric, who denied being named because he wasn’t authorized to speak on the matter, said the state government was herded into taking this decision by sectarian elements.
“We know it will reach to this stage. Having failed to counter Sheikh Abduljabbar from the point of view of knowledge, it is not therefore surprising that they are now riding on the back of a secular institution to shut him down. You can shut his mosque and school, but you can’t shut the hearts of Muslims from all divergent sects who are inspired by his teachings. They have adopted a cliched technique. We’ll overcome this as well,” one of his students said.
