By INNOCENT ANABA
Clerics from Itire Central Mosque in Mushin Local Government Area of Lagos  have denied reports that the mosque was completed by member of the state House of Assembly, Bolaji Ayinla, 30 years after its construction began.

Chairman of the mosque building committee, Alhaji Musbau Alimi and the mosque secretary, Mr Saliman Ogunrinde, in a statement, yesterday, said the clarification became necessary because “the issue of the completion of the mosque has been unnecessarily politicized” by certain politicians with the intention to scoring cheap political points in an election year.

The cleric said that the publication contains half truth and outfight falsification of facts and to put the record straight, the mosque has existed for a century.

“It was in 1992 that the foundation of the present two-storey building began, though the efforts of the entire Jamaat and most especially, Chief Buhari Oloto, the present Olori-Ebi of Itiriland and several prominent residents and indigenes of Itire.

“It was in recognition of the efforts of Alhaji Oloto,  morally and financially, towards the completion of the first floor, that he was turbaned the Saraki Adini of Itireland in 1994 inside the same mosque. By 2008, the second floor was completed and the mosque roofed,” the clerics said.

According to them, Ayinla appeared on the scene in February 2009 and prayed at the Jummat service inside the mosque and that he completed the ceramic tiles of the ground floor same year.

They said  Ayinla came back in 2010 and completed the tiles on the first floor, did the painting and donated a N70,000 generator to the mosque.