SOME religiousgroups, especiallythose whose buildings and worship centres have been marked for demolition by agencies of the Oyo State government over the recent flood disaster in the city of Ibadan, have appealed to Governor Abiola Ajimobi to carry out the demolition exercise with the advice and inputs from environmental specialists.They also counselled the state government that innocent people's houses and those with authentic documents of their buildings should be given the opportunity to present them for thorough screen so as to prevent indiscriminate demolition of their buildings.Members of the An-Sar-U-deen Society, Odo-Ona, on Apata road in Ibadan South-West Local Government Council, Oyo State, made this appeal when leaders of the Islamic group organised a press briefing to explain the reasons why their mosque, was marked for demolition by the officials of the State Ministry of Environment should not be pulled down.The press meeting, which had in attendance some media organisations in the state was also attended by many Islamic faithfuls, community leaders, residents of Gada-Odo-Ona Apata Landlords Associations, as well as some youth leaders in the area.Speaking at the meeting, Alhaji Azeez Tunde Ladejo, the Chairman, AnSar-U-Deen Society, Odo-Ona, Ibadan, explained that they were not against the state government trying to do what would prevent future occurence of flood disaster in the city, but stressed that their position was that indiscriminate demolition of buildings by agents of the state government would not be good.According to him, 'as a religious group, we are also law abiding. As members of Islamic organisation with fear of God, we understand our duty to respect and abide with the rules and regulations of a constituted authorities like Oyo State government.'In fact, it is one of the tenets of Islams to pray for the success of legally constituted authority or government because we know that it is Almighty Allah that makes a leader or government. But what we are saying is that the demolition exercise should have a human face and government must make sure that there is no blind destruction or indiscriminate demolition of structures, buildings, and most especially, worship centres,' he advised.Alhaji Ladejo said the officials of the Oyo State Ministry of Environment only marked the mosque without asking questions or thoroughly go through the building plans and other documents giving to them by appropriate agencies of the state government before a demolition mark was put on the mosque.The muslim leader said the state government should task either building experts or civil engineers to pay a visit to the area or supervise the Gada river properly to determine whether they ran foul of environmental law or went against physical planning before stigmatising the mosque as an illegal structure.' Our mosque was not built on river path or on top of a canal or near a river bank. The approved document is here to butress our claim. The path of Gada river was changed and the water channel was directed towards our mosque by some people who built houses very close to the river bank.'As a result of this human error, the river changed its direction towards the mosque before changing again toward the Gada bridge,' he stated.
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