The Borno State government on Thursday inaugurated the Islamic Religion Preachers Board (IRPB) at the Government House EXCO Chamber to monitor and censor public preaching.
This is aimed towards looking inwards for solutions to the insurgency problem bedevilling northeast Nigeria.
Governor Kashim Shettima noted that after previous defeats the outlawed extremist group, Boko Haram, regrouped and flourished using religious guise.
Governor Shettima mandated the Board to ensure they interface with community sources within Maiduguri and other local governments in the state with a view to ridding the state of preachers who spread dangerous ideologies.
“In all instances of their regrouping the Boko Haram sect recruited new members mostly through open preaching to spread their misguided ideologies targeting teenagers.
“They have leaders who openly preach in mosques and residential gatherings without showing violence at initial levels. We must take firm, consistent and knowledge based steps to continously separate those clerics who preach in the name of Allah and those who kill innocent souls in the name of Allah”, Kashim stated.
He admonished the Islamic Religious Preaching Board to set preaching standards and be alert in spotting suspicious preaching among clerics, especially newcomers into the existing group of preachers in all parts of the state.
