Atiku, Sultan task Qur’anic reciters on national unity

The presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, has called on the Centre for Qur’anic Reciters of Nigeria to nip in the bud, what he called the monster of disunity in the country.

The former vice president made the call in Sokoto yesterday at the national conference on Alarammomi, organized by the Qur’anic Reciters, in concert with the Centre for Intellectual Services on Sokoto Caliphate.

Atiku, who was represented by his media associate, Suleiman Uba, said religious leaders have a key role to play in mending “the deep divisions existing among Nigerians of different shades and colours.

“We have to have a nation first before anything else. Right now, unless something drastic is done, our national unity will be permanently ruined,” he said.

Atiku asked citizens to elect another government “that takes the interest of the people first, and which will exploit the nation’s heterogeneity to huge advantage.”

The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, charged the leadership of the Qur’anic Reciters to wipe out quack clerics “who take pleasure in twisting the true teachings of Islam to achieve selfish, and most often, dangerous ends.

The mothers of Aliko Dangote and Aabdulsamad Isyaka Rabi’u were among those who received awards of excellence for their roles in forging national unity through religious tolerance among the citizenry.