Religion leaders have called on the Nigeria Inter-Religion Agency (NIREC), Lagos Chapter, to be alert to its responsibility. The leaders made the call on Thursday at the ongoing 2021 Inter-Faith Parley organised by the Lagos State Ministry of Home Affairs on Thursday in Lagos.
The parley’s theme was entitled: “Achieving Greater Lagos: Role of Religious Bodies.”
They said that the responsiveness of the faith regulatory agency would check bad blood and infractions in the system.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the parley is to enable religious leaders to deliberate on issues of public importance as it relates to worship.
One of the participants, the Lagos Chairman, Christian Association of Nigeria, (CAN), Bishop Stephen Adegbite, said that the timely response of NIREC in some issues between religious bodies and the state would nip issues in the bud.
While speaking on ‘Harmony Among Bodies’, Adegbite, said court cases involving faith organisations and the state should have been settled at the level of interface with NIREC and the concerned bodies.
“We want to see an active agency that will engage bodies and issues settled on win-win basis instead of the victor- vanquish stance of the court,” he said.
Adegbite urged the agency to mediate on problems of land acquisition faith organisations, state agencies and private land grabbers in the state.
In his remark, Chief Imam of the Lagos Central Mosque, Gafar Shakiru, said the intervention of the agency in matters of mode of worship as being advocated by the state would help to reach consensus.
The Imam said the bodies looked up to the regulatory agency to censor erring bodies where necessary and applaud those within the confines of stipulated conventions to infuse sanity in the system.