Lucky Obukohwo, Reporting
NIGERIA – Muslims in their large number have staged a peaceful protest in solidarity with Palestinians in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza just as they called on the United Nations to prevail on Israel to ceasefire.
The solidarity rally, it was gathered it started at the Iwo Road under bridge on Saturday morning and ended at OTM Mosque in Iwo Road around 12:00 pm on Saturday.
The rally, organized by Conference of Islamic Organisations (CIO) in the state, was attended by top Islamic scholars, clerics and leaders of various Muslim organisations.
The organizers described Palestinians as the victims of the long-running war between Israel and Palestine resistance group, Hamas.
The protesters, who gathered, amid presence of security men, including men of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps and the Police, noted that many innocent lives have been lost as a result of the war.
Some of those speakers at the rally include Grand Mufti, Conference of Islamic Organisations, Lagos, Sheikh Dhirulahi Shafi, Dr Daud Amao Alaga, Barrister Abdulrahman Olaiya and a professor of Chemical Engineering, Modiu Durowoju.
The protesters, during the rally, called for an urgent peace process to bring the war to an end.
The professor of Chemical Engineering, Modiu Durowoju, who addressed newsmen on behalf of the protesters, said that the international community led by the United Nations must retrieve the peace process from the monopoly of the United States.
He also suggested that the UN should prevail upon Israel to cease its bombing campaigns of Gaza and other areas.
“The international community led by the United Nations should prevail upon Israel to cease its bombing campaigns of Gaza and other areas which has brought horror not just to the Palestinians but to the world.
“The United Nations should lead efforts at creating humanitarian corridors and ensuring that aid and relief packages have access into Gaza and other places.
“Any interim peace process must as a matter of necessity, incorporate the lifting of the siege of Gaza.
“The international community led by the UN must retrieve the peace process from the monopoly of the United States which has become part of the Israeli occupation machinery. The world must work to bring Israel to the Two-States solution, compel it to halt settlement building and lift its siege of Gaza”, Durowoju said.