Breaking: Federal high court sends prominent cleric, Yesaloonaka to jail, details emerge

The federal high court, Osun state, has remanded a well-known Islamic cleric, Moshood Quadri Yesaloonaka, in Ile-Ife Correctional Center.

Legit.ng learnt that Yesaloonaka was remanded in custody till further notice.

The court took its decision on Monday, July 17, after police operatives swooped on the Islamic cleric and arrested him at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Lagos on Friday, July 14.

Meanwhile, Mallam Yusuf Adepoju, the chief preacher of the Academy of Islamic Propagation (ACADIP), who is the chief complaint in Yesaloonaka's case, has stated that the detained cleric is fond of "defaming" Islamic scholars of southwest and northcentral region extraction.

It is understood that Yesaloonaka is being detained for alleged cybercrime-related offences.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Legit.ng on Monday, July 17, before the court's verdict, Mallam Adepoju said Yesaloonaka’s level of toxicity on social media against religious leaders is extremely high.

He accused Ilorin-based Yesaloonaka, who was arrested while returning from Saudi Arabia where he performed the hajj, of tagging him with slanderous names.

“I have never met him, I never fellowshipped with him. I didn’t have anything to do with him, I didn’t know him from anywhere. But he claimed that I offended his spiritual father, who happened to be a mudir in Lagos, Mudiru Markaz in Agege (Sheikh Habeebullah Adam Al-Ilory). And I never did any video to defame that mudir. But he said I did a video, I insulted the man, so he wants to stand up for his spiritual leader. And that was why he went on social media and started demeaning my personality to the extent of calling me a kidnapper, an assassin, and a terrorist.”

Adepoju continued: “I was not the only one that he labelled Boko Haram. He called 13 Islamic scholars Boko Haram. Anybody he deemed to have spoken against his Alfa, the next thing he goes online and started calling them Boko Haram.”

Furthermore, Mallam Adepoju said Yesaloonaka never publicly recanted his alleged slanderous claims and even jumped bail three times.

After a brief incarceration in August 2021, he was also remanded for 14 days at the Ilesha Federal Maximum Prison in June 2022 and released on bail.

Adepoju said: “Later, an Osogbo federal high court issued another bench warrant against him and revoked his bail.”

The Osun-based Islamic preacher chided Yesaloonaka for not “repenting”, as some persons who joined him to controversially label some Muslim clerics Boko Haram members have since publicly retracted their words. He cited Sheikh Abdul Wasiu Jaqmal Atayese as a case in point.