The Enugu State Police Command has taken into custody a 74-year-old Islamic cleric, Alhaji Musa Ani, and the Sarikin Hausawa of Enugu, Alhaji Suleiman Haruna Sule, in connection with an alleged N100m financial impropriety.
Ani, who heads the Islamic Centre in Uwani, Enugu, was reportedly arrested on Friday at the mosque premises by operatives of the command.
Sources disclosed that Sule, who also chairs the United Inter-Community Traditional Council of Chiefs, was detained a day later when he visited the State Criminal Investigation Department in a bid to facilitate Ani’s bail.
The action of the police was said to have followed a petition submitted by Alhaji Ezeani Ibrahim, a shop tenant within the Islamic Centre complex. In the complaint, Ibrahim accused the cleric of mismanaging funds put at N100m.
Leaders within the Muslim community in the state have, however, dismissed the claim, describing it as unfounded. Ani was said to have informed investigators that the centre had never handled such an amount, stressing that its operations are funded through voluntary donations from worshippers.
The Civil Rights Realisation and Advancement Network criticised the arrests, characterising the development as degrading to the Muslim community.
In a petition dated March 1 and addressed to the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, the group’s President, Olu Omotayo, maintained that the matter was essentially a civil dispute arising from internal disagreements in the mosque.
Omotayo contended that any allegation of financial misconduct within the mosque ought to be examined by its steering committee, insisting that the institution had never amassed the sum being alleged.
The group further accused the state police authorities of acting unprofessionally by detaining Sule solely because he was mentioned in the petition, without first granting him an opportunity to state his side.
It also alleged a pattern of arrests carried out on Fridays, claiming such timing often results in suspects being held through the weekend without swift judicial recourse.
Calling for their immediate release, the organisation said the two elderly leaders should be allowed to return to their families and continue their religious duties during Ramadan.
It added that there were indications the police planned to arraign them before a Magistrate Court to obtain a remand order.
Copies of the petition were forwarded to the Inspector-General of Police and Enugu State Governor, Peter Mbah, seeking urgent intervention.
Attempts to reach the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, SP Daniel Ndukwe, were unsuccessful as calls and a text message sent to him were not responded to as of the time this report was filed.
