Shi’ites blast Buhari, El-Rufai over El-Zakzaky detention

The Shi’ites Muslims who constitute the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) on Sunday blasted the Presidency over a statement by the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami SAN, that the fate of IMN leader, Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky, and his wife, lies in the hands of the Kaduna State Government and the State Governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai.

The Shi’ite Muslims in a statement on Sunday by the IMN Spokesman, Ibrahim Musa, argued that it is not, therefore, possible, under any logical reasoning, to exonerate the President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government from the “continued contemptuous detention of Sheikh El Zakzaky and his wife”.

The Shi’ites were of the insinuation that the Federal Government mischievously concocted a case in Kaduna, three years after the illegal detention of the IMN leader and his wife, accusing them of aiding and abetting homicide before the Kaduna State High Court.

They protested that the case against Sheikh El Zakzaky is, therefore, only a mischievous attempt at keeping the revered leader in perpetual illegal detention.

The Shi’ites advocated that the Buhari Government should “stop deceiving the public by trying to paint itself a saint and simply obey the court judgment to free the revered sheikh and stop further false and fake cases with the deliberate intention of keeping him in detention.”

The statement reads inter alia:

“First, the Federal Government’s criminal complicity in the heinous genocide in Zaria of December, 2015 that led to the extrajudicial murder of over a thousand members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria and the subsequent arrest and detention of the sheikh is beyond doubt.

“This much was accepted and testified to by the general himself in an interview he granted a Qatari television channel while on a visit there as early as March 2016.

“The Saudi crown prince’s self-confessions during a visit to the US that the brutal and inhuman suppression and the continuing illegal detention of Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky was part of his major foreign policy achievements further confirm the Federal Government’s involvement, as foreign policy issues are in the exclusive list of the federal government.

“Was that not why the Saudi King was the first to call the General Buhari in December 2015, soon after the Zaria genocide, to congratulate him for what he called a victory against terrorism? Was that not also why general Buhari wanted to smuggle Nigeria into a Saudi-led military alliance at the time in the name of fighting terrorism? Was not the then Nigerian Defense Minister, Mansur Dan Ali, accorded honor by the Saudi authorities on behalf of the federal government for the role the Nigerian military, an agent of the federal government, played?

“Secondly, the attacks, arrest and subsequent detention of Sheikh Zakzaky were by federal government agencies. For the past four years, the Department of State Security (DSS) took custody of the sheikh and his wife from the army. Nobody is granted access to see him except with the express permission of these federal agents. It even had to take the involvement of the AGF for anyone; even the Kaduna State established judicial commission of inquiry at the time, to access Sheikh Zakzaky.

“Furthermore, when the Federal High Court declared the detention of the sheikh and his spouse illegal and unconstitutional and ordered their immediate release from custody forthwith, the order was against the DSS, Nigeria Police force and the AGF, all representing the federal government.

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“The Kaduna State Government was never a party in any of these matters. Who is the AGF now fooling that it is purely Kaduna State affair?”