The recent statement signed and issued by one Alhaji Abdulrasheed Anthony Asukwo in Uyo, claiming that he was the new chairman of Muslims community in Akwa Ibom State, has been discountenanced.

Speaking yesterday in an interview with News Express in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, the leader of the Hausa community in the state, Alhaji Hassan Sadauki, said Asukwo’s claim was incorrect.

“The so-called publication in a local medium, issued by one of our Muslim brothers, Abdulrasheed Anthony Asukwo, was misleading, erroneous and confusing. To put the erroneous issue straight, the truth of the matter is that, he was appointed as Chairman of Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board in Akwa Ibom by the State Government, just like the Christians have the Christian Pilgrims Welfare Board, with a chairman.

“But, may be, out of ignorance, as a young man, this brother felt that, by that very singular appointment, he had automatically become the chairman of the Muslims community in Akwa Ibom State. I think he made such claim out of error because he didn’t understand what his responsibility or role was all about,” he said.

Continuing, Sadauki said: “That is why when you try to advise these young people over certain principles and duties, they felt that you do not want them to belong or to be relevant in the society.

“Even I myself, with the virtue of my position as the leader of the Hausa community in the state, I can also, rightly call myself the leader of Muslims community in Akwa Ibom State, because majority of the Muslims ummah in the state are all constituted by my community and they bear allegiance to my community.

“The community constitutes over 75 per cent of Muslims, majority of whom are my people, the Hausas, then the Yorubas, some Igbos, few indigenes and other tribes,” he added.

Sadauki also pointed out that he could not claim to be the overall leader of the Muslims community in the state “because we have the Vice President General of the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs, resident in the state. He is Alhaji Inua Hassan and he is working with the Mobil at Eket, and we have a branch of the Supreme Council in the state, so in the right sense of it, Alhaji Hassan is the overall leader of the Muslim ummah in the state.”

“All Islamic bodies are under the supervision of the council,” he stressed, adding: “So this man, Abdulrasheed Asukwo, is only leading an organ of the body, whose duty is mainly to see to the smooth lifting of the Muslims pilgrims from Akwa Ibom to Saudi Arabia, to perform their hajj and back.”

Alhaji Sadauki said that the chairman of the pilgrims welfare board was politically appointed by the state government without the knowledge or inputs of the community; asking: “Who are we to question the state government’s policy decision?”

He added: “The government is at liberty to appoint whoever they deemed fit to occupy a position, but such appointee should be advised to know his limits, not to go beyond his bounds.”

The community leader noted that even the Vice President General of the Islamic Council, told him that he was not aware of the said appointment, neither did he see the publication on the self-proclaimed new appointment.

Alhaji Sadauki, therefore, advised the new appointee to “come and align himself with the main body, as we are all ready to cooperate and work with him.”

News Express recalls that Alhaji Abdulrasheed Anthony Asukwo, has a fortnight ago in Uyo, issued and signed a statement, stating that he was the new leader of the Muslims community in Akwa Ibom State, but he did not however state how he clinched the position.