Governors from Southwest States will be meeting in Lagos today amidst security concerns and heightened controversy over establishment of Sharia arbitration panels in the region.

Daily Trust reports that Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who is the chairman of the Southwest Governors’ Forum, will host his colleagues at Lagos House, Ikeja.

At the last meeting held in Lagos on June 10, 2024, Sanwo-Olu was unanimously appointed as Chairman of the Forum.

A release issued by the State Ministry of Information and Strategy, said the South West Governors’ Forum will discuss issues of common interest at the parley.

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The statement said the Forum will discuss agriculture and food security to advance economic growth, foster collaboration, and enhance development initiatives in the Zone, adding that issues having to do with the security of lives and property would also be part of the agenda.

Our correspondent reports that the ongoing controversy over the plan to set up Sharia panels in the states within the region may also be part of the agenda.

The matter became more intense recently when Ekiti State hosted the first Sharia panel sitting at Ekiti Central Mosque, Ado Ekiti with three Khadis forming the panel.

The Khadis were Imam Abdullahi Abdul-Mutolib, Imam Abdulraheem Junaid-Bamigbola and Dr Ibrahim Aminullahi-Ogunrinde.

Some Yoruba nation activists and agitators have kicked against the panel in Ekiti and those of other states in the South West, saying the subregion would not accept any Sharia panel.

But the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) under the leadership of the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, called on governors and traditional authorities in the southern part of the country, particularly the South West, to ensure that the constitutional rights of Muslims in their respective domains are preserved and protected.

In a statement signed by its Deputy National Legal Adviser, Imam Haroun Muhammad Eze, the body said it could not find any legal justification for the resistance and therefore threw its weight behind the move to establish the Shariah panels in the two states.

Describing the objections from both political and traditional quarters as unwarranted, the NSCIA explained that the arbitration panels are a voluntary platform designed solely for the resolution of civil and marital disputes among consenting Muslims.

According to the council, the panes are also to fill “the inexplicable vacuum created by the failure of the political elite in South-Western Nigeria to establish Shariah courts, as allowed by the Nigerian constitution, in South-Western states, despite the huge population of Muslims in the region.”