15th June, 2016
A cleric, Pastor Dotun Ajileye, on Wednesday, advised religious leaders in Osun to exercise restraint with their utterances over the court ruling on Hijab wearing in public schools.
Ajileye, a Senior Pastor at Glory Ministries Chapel, Agunbelewo, Osogbo, gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
He said that the issue might degenerate to a terrible situation if they do not dialogue and resolve the issue amicably.
He added that “there is need for caution here, the trend the issue is taken appears too dangerous to me.
“Both religions must find a means of coming together on roundtable and discuss the way forward to ameliorate the tensed atmosphere.
“The issue on ground requires diplomacy and caution and the youths that are directly involved must be properly guided.
“While I respect the rights of individuals to associate and all that, I also believe that court ruling remains sacrosanct until it is set aside by another higher and competent court of law.
“In that wise, I am not convinced that the solution to this problem is to polarise the system and accuse government of the day. We should adopt both legal and diplomatic means of resolving the problem.”
Justice Jide Falola of the Osun State High Court, on June 3, gave a ruling, allowing Muslim female students to wear veil (Hijab) to public schools.
However, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) had described the ruling as an “infringement on their rights.”
The Association then threatened that it would also instruct Christian children to attend classes in Church garments and robes.
Meanwhile, some Christian students of Baptist High School, Iwo, were seen in classes with their Church garments and robes
without any restriction from their teachers.