AJ protests detention of El-Zakzaky, 230 Others

· Says it’s wanton impunity

By SUNDAY ODIBASHI

Access to Justice (AJ), a non-governmental organization in Lagos, has raised alarm that the Nigerian Army is undermining the country’s constitution over the continued detention of Sheik Ibrahim El-Zakzaky and 230 members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, Shi’ite Sect.

Access to Justice protested that following confrontations and clashes between officers of Nigerian Army and members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (Shi’ite Sect) in Zaria on Saturday 12th December, 2015, Nigerian Army officials further re-grouped and raided the residence of the leader of the Shi’ite Muslims, Sheik Ibrahim Zakzaky, and, in the process, reportedly injured and killed several other persons. The Group bemoaned that Army officials subsequently arrested and detained the leader of the Movement, Sheikh El Zak-Zaky, and about 230 other persons till now. Many of those detained are injured following gun shots fired at them during the raid, AJ noted.

Access to Justice, in a statement dated December18, 2015, joined other well-meaning Nigerians in condemning the acts of the Nigerian Army, calling for impartial, independent and competent inquiry by the Federal Government and its agencies. “More than one month after the reported incidents, the Nigerian Army is still holding on, actually or constructively, to members of the Shi’ite Sect who were arrested during the incident of December 12th and 13th 2015. From the information gathered by Access to Justice, we believe that members of the Shi’ite Sect are still being detained at Nigerian Army’s Basawa Baracks and its Depot located at Zaria, other locations at Kaduna and Abuja without any formal charge or arraignment before a competent court of law. The Buhari government is turning a blind eye while the Nigerian Army turns the rule of law on its head,” it declared.

The Group contended that “the Nigerian Army is not only brutally abusing the rights of members of the Islamic Movement; it is grievously abusing the Nigerian Constitution.”  It stated that the Nigerian Army have no powers to detain civilians outside the context of war. “If those detained have committed offences, the proper agencies to deal with are the Nigeria Police and other civil security and law enforcement agencies,” Access to justice contended.

It was observed that the Commander, 1 Mechanized Division of the Nigerian Army, Major General Adeniyi Oyebade, had earlier suggested that the Army had handed over members of the Movement to civil authorities, but this has been denied by the Shi’ite Sect which has since declared that about 700 of their members have been killed, missing and or detained without a rebuttal from the Nigerian Army.

“Continued detention of members of this sect, after extra-judicially killing many of their members in horrifying and atrocious circumstances is simply impunity gone out of control,” Access to Justice declared. The NGO demanded unconditional release of the leader and members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (Shi’ite Sect) from the detention of the Nigerian Army, the Nigeria Police Force or any other civil security and law enforcement agencies. It advocated that if there are crimes alleged against them, they should be taken before courts of law in accordance with the Constitution, as well as Regional and International Treaties to which Nigeria is signatory. “Therefore, the continued detention of the members of the Movement for 33 days now, without charge and trial before competent courts of law is a gross abuse of power by the military and violation of the Rule of Law which the Federal Government has sworn to promote and preserve,” it declared. It insisted that the Buhari government should direct the release of the detained members of the Shi’ite Sect in custody of the Nigerian Army and other security and law enforcement agencies without trial now. The Federal Government under President Muhammadu Buhari must practice the change it preaches and not lend its weight to lawless acts of abuse and suppression, AJ said.