The social media has recently been awash with the story of the Emir of Ilorin, Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari, threatening a woman, Yeye Ajesikemi Omolara, over the latter’s decision to celebrate Isese festival.
Yeye Ajéṣìkẹ́mi, who is an Osun priestess, planned to hold an Isese festival in the state to celebrate Ifa spirituality and practice.
This didn’t seem to go down well with the Muslim community in the town, who then prevailed on their emir, Sulu-Gambari, to demand for the cancellation of such event or face dire consequences.
Some Islamic clerics, who were members of a Muslim group known as Majlisu Shabab-l-Ulamah Society, were then drafted to visit the priestess at her residence to tell her that the Emir of Ilorin sent them to warn her to desist from holding the three-day festival billed scheduled for between July 22 and July 24, 2023, in Ilorin.
The clerics also informed her that they have the backing of the Nigerian Police Force in the state to carry out their threats.
According to a man who appeared to be the leader of the delegation and spoke mostly in Yoruba language, the priestess was, however, free to leave the town if she must hold her festival.
“If she loves herself and her children… we’re not saying we will kill her but it would be doing anyone we murder a service because such won’t be conscious of what is happening in the world again. But she must not do it. That is the first warning.
“The second warning, we don’t accept the practice of Osun in our town. She is free to live in her house she has built here though. If there is a river she has been worshiping to be entitled to the title Yeye Osun, she must desist from doing such henceforth, especially now that she has been discovered. She will regret her action any day we catch her doing such.
“Wherever she may have decided to use since we’re not allowing such practice in Oke Adini anymore, such place must not be among the following; Ilorin West, Ilorin East, Ilorin South, Asaa, infact all the five local governments called emirates.
“She can go somewhere else that is not under emirate, that won’t be our concern,” he said.
One of the clerics chipped in, “What our father who just finished speaking said is on behalf of the emir himself and we have the full backing of the police on this.”
In his reaction, a UK-based Nigerian who is also a priest, Oluwo Olamide Aiyeola, said that those threats were illegal and breached the fundamental human rights of the priestess.
“Christianity and Islam are alien religions; ways of life of some people we share no culture with. Why are we killing our own identity for some foreigners? I just read somewhere why Muslims are threatening one woman in Ilorin over her decision to celebrate her deity.
“Besides, Section 38(1) of the 1999 Constitution provides that every person shall be entitled to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, including freedom to change his religion or belief.
“No one should have the right to advise another to stop a religious practice or belief.
“Sharia applies only in personal status issues (such as marriage, divorce, inheritance, and child custody), but otherwise the legal system is secular,” he said.
According to the Muslim Lawyers’ Association of Nigeria (MULAN), the fundamental rule of Shariah is that it does not apply to non-Muslims.
And this claim was also supported by the Sultan of Sokoto in 2022, when he was addressing the corps members that went there to serve. He explicitly explained to them that Sharia Law is not binding on non-Muslims in the state.
“Can Ilorin be more northern than Sokoto?” Aiyeola asked.
The priestess, who had once facilitated the construction of a mosque in her community, has cancelled the festival through an online video, disclosing that her life was in danger having received several death threats.
Aside from the mosque, Yeye Ajéṣìkẹ́mi has built community wells, electric poles and contributed in no small measure to the development of her community.
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