Shiites accuse FG of holding El-Zakzaky, wife over fundamental Islamic views

Urging the Federal Government to immediately release of the leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), otherwise known as Shiites, Sheikh Ibaheem El-Zakzaky, the Members of the Islamic group said that it has become obvious that his continuous detention is as a result of the fundamental Islamic religious views he professed.

The group lamented yesterday, that El-Zakzaky and his wife have been languishing in detention custody for 600 days despite a substantive order by a Federal High Court, Abuja ordering their release, and with a compensation of N50 million awarded.

In a statement by the spokesman of the Islamic group, Mallam Ibrahim Musa, he said, “Today marks exactly 600 days since the illegal detention of our revered Leader, Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky despite a valid court order for his release,” adding, “we continue to strongly voice our opposition to the lame excuses forwarded by the government for his continued incarceration, especially the most irrational of all that of the so-called protective custody.”

According to Musa, “the Federal High Court in Abuja has since declared as alien to all known laws of the land and indeed all laws known to man, the concept of protective custody. It therefore ordered the release of the revered Sheikh. However, to the consternation of all, especially the International Community, the Federal Government has continued to contemptuously defy the order”.

He alleged that, “undoubtedly, Sheikh Zakzaky is still languishing in jail for no other reasons than his religious views and call for the establishment of divine justice and for his daring comments on contemporary socio-political events locally and internationally.”

Mallam Musa argued that, “Sheikh Zakzaky has been most consistent critic of the scam called “Boko Haram,” pointing out, “he has maintained that the phantom group is a creation of the oil-hungry west.”

Musa continued: “as the Sheikh clocks 600 days in illegal detention, we renew our unequivocal call for his immediate and unconditional release. We strengthen our individual and collective resolve, undeterred by continued brutal persecution, to campaign in all lawful and peaceful ways for his release as well as that of his wife and other IMN members also unjustifiably detained.

“We will leave no stone unturned in our lawful demand for justice for the over a thousand citizens killed extra judicially during the Zaria genocide of December, 2015,” he concluded.