FOUNDER and presiding bishop of Living Faith Church (Winners Chapel) David Oyedepo has asked Kwara State government and Muslims to leave missionary schools for the owners.
Oyedepo said this in a viral video seen by The ICIR on Wednesday over the crisis regarding the use of hijab in Kwara mission schools.
“It is such a nasty development in Kwara State where Muslims are asking their students in our schools to wear hijab, and the church said ‘no.’
“Leave the school for the owners, find your schools, when you get to your school, men and women can wear hijabs there,” Oyedepo said.
School activities in some mission schools in Kwara State were placed on hold due to the agitation of some school authorities that prohibited the use of hijab in schools by female students.
Kwara State government had shut down the schools for 14 days after the controversy escalated between the Muslims and Christians in the state.
However, the state government later issued a directive that all female students in the affected schools were at liberty to use hijab and that the schools be reopened.
On reopening, there was violence in some of the schools as some Muslim and Christian residents clashed in Ilorin, the state capital.
The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has accused Governor Abdulrahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara State of taking sides in the crisis.
According to CAN, there was a pending suit before the Supreme Court over the ownership of the schools.
Proprietor of Baptist Senior Secondary School, Surulere, Victor Dada said the use of the hijab would not be allowed because it was a missionary school.
Dada said that although the school was run by the government, the Baptist owned it and whatever was not in line with the principle of the Baptist church would not be allowed.
Lukman Abolade is an Investigative reporter with The ICIR. Reach out to him via labolade@icirnigeria.org, on twitter @AboladeLAA and FB @Correction94