Sheikh Muhammad Nuru Khalid, the former Chief Imam of the National Assembly Legislative Quarters Mosque, says his dismissal was a price he paid for Nigerians who have no voice.

According to Naijacrawl, the Imam was ultimately fired on Monday, just a few days after he was suspended following a sermon in which he attacked the current government for failing to address the security issue.

Imam Khalid responded to the sack, which has sparked outrage across the country, by saying that the mosque's decision was a necessary price he had to pay for connecting with the suffering masses and speaking truth to power.

Sheikh Khalid told Vanguard on Monday night that the Management Committee of a new Jum'mat Mosque behind the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN Quarters, Abuja, had offered him a new position.

According to him, he will take over as pastor of his new church on Friday, April 8.

"My sack is a reflection of how Nigeria is now," he says. Many people use religion as a pretext to commit all kinds of heinous deeds. Such people would go to any length to remove people like me."

This is the cost of identifying with the people and empathizing with their pain.

"By Almighty Allah's Grace, I shall be heading my new congregation this Friday, since we need a platform to work as clerics." I shall now be leading the congregation at the Jum'mat mosque we built behind the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN Quarters, in Abuja."