ILORIN, A criminal case involving Yoruba traditional religion practitioner and social media personality Ifagbemiro Olamigoke Adewola, popularly known as Benny lee, has renewed tensions between Muslims and Isese adherents in Nigeria’s Kwara State, raising wider questions about religious tolerance and freedom of expression. The Ilorin Heritage Preservation Foundation brought the case after accusing Adewola of publishing material offensive to Islam, including an image allegedly showing a Quran on a prayer mat with a clay pot containing eggs and palm oil placed on it. The foundation says it sought removal of the material and an apology before going to court. Adewola faces allegations under provisions of Kwara State’s Penal Code concerning inciting disturbance, insulting a religious creed, defiling a sacred object and injurious falsehood. His lawyer, Ademola Oyedokun, has challenged the Magistrate’s Court’s jurisdiction, and the allegations have not been proven.
The proceedings have attracted Isese practitioners to the court in Ilorin, some wearing clothing and symbols associated with traditional Yoruba spirituality. Supporters say the case reflects a broader struggle over whether indigenous religion practitioners can openly defend and promote their beliefs in a predominantly Muslim city without intimidation or prosecution. Muslim representatives, however, say the dispute is not an attack on Isese but concerns material they consider deliberately provocative and potentially capable of disturbing religious peace. The Grand Chief Imam of Oyo Land, Bilal Husayn Akinola Akeugberu, has cautioned Adewola against statements or actions capable of encouraging religious hostility while supporting the use of lawful processes rather than confrontation.
The dispute has particular significance in Ilorin, an important center of Islamic scholarship and the seat of the Ilorin Emirate, while also lying within the wider Yoruba cultural region where indigenous religious traditions have existed for centuries. Nigeria’s Constitution protects freedom of thought, conscience and religion under Section 38 and freedom of expression under Section 39, although those freedoms can be subject to laws protecting public order. The case therefore raises a difficult legal question: whether deeply offensive religious expression remains constitutionally protected or crosses the line into criminal incitement or another punishable offense.
Similar tensions erupted in Ilorin in 2023 when traditional priestess Yeye Ajisekemi Olatunji planned an Isese festival and faced opposition from sections of the Muslim community. The Emir of Ilorin, Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari, cautioned against practices he described as alien to the emirate’s culture, while traditionalists argued they had a constitutional right to worship. That year, Isese activist Abdulazeez Adegbola, known as Tani Olohun, was arrested after controversial online statements and material involving the Quran. He faced charges including inciting public disturbance and insulting a religious creed and spent about three months in detention before receiving bail. Traditionalists cited the case as evidence of unequal treatment, while Muslim groups maintained that offensive or inflammatory conduct should have legal consequences. Criminal complaints have also been made against Muslim clerics over allegedly inflammatory statements, showing that disputes over religious speech have crossed community lines.
The sensitivity is heightened by deadly cases elsewhere in Nigeria. In Sokoto in May 2022, Christian college student Deborah Samuel was killed by a mob after accusations that she made remarks considered insulting to the Prophet Muhammad in a WhatsApp group. Usman Buda was also killed by a mob in Sokoto in 2023 following allegations of blasphemous remarks. The Ilorin dispute is different because complainants have turned to the courts rather than violence, but previous incidents demonstrate how quickly accusations involving religion can become dangerous. Similar debates have occurred internationally, including prosecutions under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, the deadly 2015 attack on French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and controversy over Quran burnings in Sweden and Denmark, which prompted protests across Muslim-majority countries and led Denmark to restrict certain treatment of religious texts.
Adewola’s case now presents Nigerian authorities and the courts with the challenge of protecting religious communities from genuine threats and incitement without allowing criminal law to become a tool for suppressing lawful criticism or minority religious expression. For Muslims, the dispute centers on respect for beliefs and objects they consider sacred; for traditionalists, it has become a test of whether Isese adherents enjoy the same constitutional space to worship and speak publicly as followers of larger religions. The outcome could therefore resonate beyond Adewola and Kwara State, testing how Africa’s most populous country balances freedom of religion, freedom of expression and public order in an intensely diverse society.
