President, Centre for Quranic Recitation in Nigeria, Sheikh Hassan Musa, yesterday revealed that it was the vote of the Almajiris in the 19 Northern states of the country that returned President Muhammadu Buhari to office for a second term in 2019.
Hassan Musa said in Minna, the Niger State capital that the 16 million strong Almajiris in the Northern part of country were mobilised to cast their ballots for the then All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate to pay back for the alleged derogatory remarks made about the region by former First Lady Dame Patience Jonathan.
Speaking at the flag-off of the isolation of some Almajiris by the Niger State Government, Musa said the North did not take the alleged derogatory remarks well though Dame Patience Jonathan did not know the import of her remarks because “she spoke in Hausa”.
“We agreed that Jonathan will not return, we asked all the Almajiris to vote for Buhari that is how he won the election.”
Musa warned the political class against toying with the issue of Almajiris the way they were doing now saying that “we will wait for them again in 2023”.
He said they (clerics) had agreed to allow the Almajiris to be isolated and tested for the Coronavirus disease but said “we are releasing these children to you on trust if you fail us, we will get back to you.”
The Centre for Quranic Recitation President said part of the agreement was to “put the Almajiris in conventional schools, clothe and feed them and they should not allow these people to suffer.
“We are all over the 19 Northern states, so I plead with the governments to keep to their part of the bargain if not they will regret in the future.”