In a statement on Monday, the founder of the Islamic organisation, Prof Ishaq Akintola, said MURIC had alerted the Department of State Services to invite the duo for questioning concerning the music video, which was described as insensitive to Muslim feelings.
Akintola noted that a seven-day ultimatum had been issued to Davido to pull down the video.
The statement read, “Logos Olori, an artist under David Adeleke, aka Davido, recently released a music video with the caption, ‘Jaye Lo’. In the video, some people dressed in white jalabiyas like Muslims were seen praying the way Muslims do before launching into dancing as they recited some Quranic verses and prayed.
“Mats were spread for those praying behind an ‘Imam’ who used the popular single-prayer rug (sajadah). Those who were praying also read out what looked like Muslim recitations in Arabic language and prostrated the way Muslims do in prayer.
“Logos Olori himself was seen sitting on the roof of a mosque-like building mounted with a horn public address system thus creating the complete impression of a mosque scenario.”
Akintola said that without doubt, the scene in the music video was the setting of a Muslim prayer session, but mixing it with singing and dancing was utterly wrong in concept and grossly misleading in content.
He added that in like manner, sitting on top of a ‘mosque’ or what looks like it, with the type of loudspeaker used on top of mosques was most primitive, extremely serpentine, and categorically unacceptable.
Akintola said, “Thousands of Nigerian Muslims have expressed displeasure with the new music video and the Nigerian media have published their reactions.
“Our office in particular has been inundated with complaints against this luciferous music video. Nigerian Muslims find the juxtaposition of Muslims in prayer sessions with the same Muslims singing and dancing offensive, repugnant and provocative.
“Logos Olori’s musical video is insensitive to Muslim feelings, while Davido himself added salt to the injury on the Muslim anatomy by promoting the video in his tweet. There is no iota of doubt that both men, Davido and his signee, have no modicum of respect for the faith of Islam. They have provoked millions of Nigerian Muslims.”
Reminding Nigerians of several religious riots in the past that were caused by provocative artworks, Akintola said those religious riots claimed hundreds of lives while properties worth billions of naira were destroyed by angry rioters.
He described what Davido and Logos Olori did with the video as equivalent to seeking repeated destruction of lives and properties in the country, stressing that all right-thinking Nigerians, regardless of their religious affiliations, must condemn the video.
Akintola said, “We alert men of the Department of State Services to invite both men for questioning to explain why they chose to produce and promote a musical video capable of igniting anarchy in Nigeria.
“In the same vein, we invite the National Broadcasting Corporation and the National Film And Video Censors Board to immediately ban the insensitive musical video captioned ‘Jaye Lo’ by Logos Olori.
“MURIC objects to the lame excuse often given by Nigerian agencies charged with moderation responsibilities who claim that separate petitions should be addressed to them by complainants before they can take action. It does not work that way in saner climes. Nigerian agencies must be proactive.”
He noted that relevant agencies must spring into action the moment attention is drawn to an infraction capable of causing a breach of the peace, so long as the authors of the infringement have been identified and whether or not the information contains an appeal to the monitoring agency or agencies.
Akintola said, “To expect separate petitions before taking action is to empower criminals, delay justice and encourage a culture of procrastination (which is the thief of time). We also believe that such agencies should be held accountable if trouble breaks out due to their lackadaisical attitude.
“We hereby give Davido and Logos Olori seven days ultimatum to pull down the music video or face spiritual or legal action or both. That video is a mockery of Muslim spiritual life and practise. We will therefore employ a spiritual weapon on those who attack our spiritual way of life.
“Nonetheless, we appeal to Muslims throughout the country to remain calm and law-abiding. No Muslim should attack Davido or Logos Olori. Gone are those days of spontaneous violent reactions. A social and mental re-engineering campaign has succeeded in changing that perspective.”
