We are being tactical with religious places of worship to avoid mayhem – Bogis Boss

By: Bodun Kayode

The pulling down of some structures including places of worship in Maiduguri the Borno state capital by the Borno Geographic information Service (BOGIS) has been seen as a ploy by the agency targeting a certain religion rather than a design to correct some under deals in land matters in the state.

The Executive Secretary of the Government Agency Engineer Adam Bababe told NEWSng while filing questions during a Press Conference that he was brought in by the Zulum administration to correct such under-deals on land matters and to help the government in boosting the economy of the state by making the people do the right thing.

According to him, of particular concern was the EYN church bulldozed by his men. “Government does not fancy pulling down worship places just for the sake of it. We as an agency indeed go after wrong doers and force them to do the right thing.

“Government does not fancy demolition. But if you see any structure, Church or Mosque being demolished, there must be a form of violation. To my conscience any structure being demolished regardless of the category, find out what they did wrong before the law caught up with them.

“Look at this scenario you have painted, let’s say the government has accepted that it demolished any structure wrongly. What are the procedures? Did they follow the laws? Did they pay for commercial or residential? People should ask themselves, after identifying their category; did we actually abide by the terms of reference? Did we adhere to all of them? If yes or no, the answers will be clear to them. However, the Government will react only on the face of the law and nothing else.

“You see, in Borno, we have been involved in over a decade long territorial insurgency and as such we felt we would not allow anything related to religion to cause mayhem. That is why we are being tactical with religious places but many of them are defaulters.

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On the mistakes made with the EYN Church in Maduganari he said that “the records say that the land in question is residential not commercial or religious. If they want, let them come and tell us that they want a religious site and we will check and see what is on the ground before responding to them.”

He said nobody can just wake up and impose on the Government what he or she thinks is right even if it’s against what the law says.

“What pleasure do I derive as a Muslim from demolition of a mosque or even a church? I believe that the outburst and anger on that matter was because the people concerned lacked knowledge about the laws. I work according to the laws setting up the agency and I will not do anything touching on the integrity of government that would make me run afoul of the law and cause the Governor to sack me.” He said

Engineer Bababe regretted that people always find it difficult to accept reality because Africans are extremely religious but the church failed to abide by the terms of reference of the land in question and rather went obscene of the law.

“They knew very well that the land was residential and the terms of allocation clearly spelt out and that they must be paying ground rents. But they went ahead to convert it to a commercial plot and even fixed a package water factory on the said land. How do we allow such an infringement to linger for others to emulate?” he asked.

He said the agency will not tolerate any such infringement from anyone adding that he would not have the guts to challenge others with water factories in their residencies if he had not stopped the wrong at the EYN Madugunari church, which was demolished last

According to him, a similar case occurred in which he had to demolish an endangered mosque because of a house, “that case in concern was a Mosque at a particular place close to the Shehu’s palace. It showed some cracks and it was obvious the mosque must go because of the building.

We are being tactical with religious places of worship to avoid mayhem – Bogis Boss