The government said on Thursday that it had stepped up measures aimed at preventing a repeat of the ethno-religious crises that occurred in Jos, Plateau State and Bauchi State where hundreds of lives were lost and properties worth billions of naira were destroyed.
Niger State Solicitor-General/Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Justice, Alhaji Ndagi Usman Wali, disclosed this while briefing journalists in Minna on the measures adopted by the state government to ensure peaceful co-existence of all citizens in the state.
“Consequently, all preachers/religious bodies are to be licensed as a way of controlling the messages that can create divisive tendencies and to ensure that only people who have the prerequisite requirements are allowed to speak in churches and mosques in the state.
“To avoid what has happened in Jos, Plateau and similar killings we are hearing in Bauchi State, we have decided to license all preachers while all religious gatherings outside mosques and churches without police permit can no longer be tolerated in all parts of the state,” Wali said.
The solicitor-general said that security agents had been made to be on the alert in the state as part of strategies adopted by the state government to nip in the bud any move by any persons or groups to cause trouble in Niger State.
According to Wali, the government took the decision to regulate religious activities in the state, not with the intent of overriding the rights of adherents of the different religions, but in the overall best interest of the state.
“We have had cases whereby people who are not well grounded on religious issues mount the rostrum to preach.
“In order to avoid inciting utterances that could ignite religious unrest, we have to apply some proactive measures to check the trend
“Government is not against preaching by any religious body; in-fact as a government we also listen to preaching and try to adjust if we are doing anything wrong unknowingly and such issues are brought to our knowledge through preaching, but we are also under obligation to ensure that whatever preaching we do does not go beyond what could guarantee peaceful co-existence of all in Niger State,” Wali added.
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