Niger sets up committee to investigate new Islamic sect

Niger State Governor Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu yesterday set up a committee to investigate the activities of an Islamic sect whose ideology has semblance with that of the Boko Haram.

The action came following an alarm raised by the state Jumma’at Mosque Imams Forum yesterday during a courtesy visit to the governor in Minna. The governor was told by the forum that the sect which has its base in Bida town has Islamic practices that contravene normal Islamic system which is capable of breaching the prevailing peace in the state.

Governor Aliyu who was visibly disturbed by the report, immediately set up the committee which comprises Shehu Haruna, the Commissioner for Religious Affairs and Yusuf Garba Tagwai, the Commissioner for Local Government, to investigate the presence and activities of the sect and report to government in three days.

“Based on concerns over the Islamic group in Bida, I hereby direct the Commissioner for Religious Affairs and the Commissioner for Local Government to immediately find out about the group and report back to me in three days before I know what to do”, he said.

Shedding more light on the activities of the new sect, the Secretary General of the State Jumma’at Mosque Imam Forum, Sheik Umar Farouk, said his forum had an encounter with the members of the sect and found out that their ideology cannot be differentiated from that of the Boko Haram.

“What they were saying really baffled us, though they said they are not Boko Haram. But we have our reservations because we don’t want to compromise peace in the state. We were also told that the leader of the sect in Bida used to travel for three months to an unknown place. And while away his phones would be put off but he only gets them on when he wants to talk to somebody, such act is submitting them to suspicion the more,” he added.