Concerned elites in Rivers state have condemned claims by popular Islamic cleric, Sheihk Ahmad Gumi, that it was wrong for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to appoint a Christian as Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Convener of the elites, Chief Tony Okocha, who made this assertion Thursday in Abuja, during a media chat, decried Gumi’s utterance as spread by his adherents, describing it as an affront to one nation-hood.

He further described the development as treasonable under the law governing the land.

Rejecting claims that FCT is in the Northern Region and so, the only ones qualify to occupy the Ministerial Position must be Northerners, Okocha argued that Abuja is not a designated core northern state to be inhabited and governed only by the northerners, and that the territory is not dominated by only northern indigenes and Muslims.

Okocha, who alleged that the cleric incited the north not to be comfortable with the appointment of a non-Muslim to head Security Agencies in Nigeria, as none, order than a Northern/Muslim can be fair to all and sundry, accused the cleric of intending to expand the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria from its prescribed Secular State status, to a mono-religious State.

Noting that the President is at liberty to appoint any Nigerian to any office without consideration for tribe or religion, the converner said the current Minister of FCT, Nyesom Wike, is fit and proper to be appointed as Minister of the territory and having not been found guilty of any infraction whatsoever, but rather has worked in tandem with the mission assigned to him within the armbits of the constitution of Nigeria and remains unshakable.

According to him, any call for his sack is maliciously orchestrated and so, cannot hold waters.

His words: “A known Muslim cleric took to the pulpit in Hausa language to say that FCT is in the Northern Region and so, the only ones who qualify to occupy the Ministerial Position of the FCT must be a Northerner.

“He further incites the north not to be comfortable with the appointment of a non-Muslim to head Security Agencies in Nigeria, as none, order than a Northern/Muslim can be fair to all and sundry.

“These incisive virtuperations of Gumi as spread by his adherents and ilk, affront our One Nation-hood and so, we conclude that it is treasonable.
“How does being a Christian make one an infidel or how could Sheikh Gumi refer to the occupant of the FCT Ministerial office, one tested and proven as an infidel?
“Is Abuja designated a core northern state to be inhabited and Governed only by the northerners? Are all northern Indigenes Muslims?

“Is Gumi intending to expand the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria or amending it from its prescribed Secular State status, to a mono-religious State “suo moto”’ and in this case, Nigeria being an Islamic State? What constitutes’ the hub in the characteristic features of a Federation is the believe in “unity in diversity.”

“Is Gumi unaware that for almost a decade conservatively, the Northerners have held the forte in our Economic mainstay (Oil) industry under the nomenclature of NNPC? And that the North at present, doesn’t contribute a barrel of oil?

“When all through the last administration of President Buhari, the northerners/Muslims held sway in the Military formations and services, was the banditry in the north defeated, even as it was enrooted in the North?
“Sheikh Gumi and co-travelers should learn from the Wisecrack of David Frum “Nobody ever won an Election by spitting at his Political opponents.”