Islamic movement asks Buhari to release El-Zakzaky
By Susan Onuorji, Lagos | Publish Date: Oct 25 2017 3:47PM
The Islamic Movement in Nigeria, (IMN) has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to comply with the court’s order to release its leader, Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky.
In a statement made available to Daily Trust on Wednesday, the spokesman of IMN, Ibrahim Musa, said the group held a peaceful procession on Sunday in major towns and cities across northern Nigeria, demanding for Zakzaky’s release.
He said that the procession ended peacefully except in Kaduna and Sokoto, where armed policemen allegedly attacked the peaceful protesters.
Musa condemned the disruption of the Shi’a procession by the police.
“It is the very definition of injustice and unfairness and breaches our rights. If the government does not want us to carry out more Free-Zakzaky protests, they must immediately and unconditionally release our leader from unconstitutional and unlawful detention", he said.
"In Kaduna metropolis, a contingent of well-armed policemen was drafted to the scene of the peaceful protest along the busy Ahmadu Bello Way and opened fire on the unarmed protesters using live bullets and teargas. Luckily, there was no loss of life reported but dozens sustained injuries of varying degrees of severity," the spokesman added.
Musa further alleged that: "the same scenario was played out in Sokoto, where the security men arrived after the peaceful protest has ended and participants were already leaving the scene of termination of the procession. Nevertheless, the policemen were bent on attacking. They proceeded to the Centre of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria; carted away motorcycles left behind by some of the protesters and also made some arrests."
The statement reads further: “It is as if under PMB-led administration, the lives of Shi’a Muslims in Nigeria have no value. We have seen the systematic state-backed persecution and extermination of the Shi’a adherents in Nigeria. Clearly, the climate that has permitted mob violence against Shi’a Muslims as noticed recently in some quarters of Nigeria is directly traceable to the implicit and explicit anti-Shi’a posture of the Buhari administration and that of Kaduna and Sokoto state governments as well."
The movement also said it "reliably learned through some confirmed security reports that the government plans to carry out the targeted arrest of some prominent members of IMN in the days leading to the eve of the forthcoming Annual Arba’een symbolic trek."
"We remain unperturbed and unshaken in our resolve to exercise our constitutional rights to practice our religion. Our Arba’een Trek is peaceful as it has always been. Nobody is being forced to join and it is a religious obligation re-enacting the untold suffering forced upon the household of the Holy Prophet of Islam. It is a solemn religious event that can be seen enacted by Shi'a adherents worldwide. It will not be different in Nigeria," it stated.