‘We are law-abiding citizens; we are not running a parallel government’

Spokesman of the controversial Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), otherwise known as Shiites, Mallam Ibrahim Musa, in this interview with SAXONE AKHAINE, Northern Bureau Chief, explained the circumstances surrounding the recent confrontation between the sect and the Nigerian State.

What happened between Shiites and soldiers was not a clash
I WOULDN’T like you to describe the incident as a clash because I don’t want to believe that it was a clash. If we want to say it was a clash then it means there was a fight. There was no fight between the soldiers and Islamic Movement. It was just an assault by the soldiers on the brothers and sisters of the Islamic movement. It was an unfortunate incident. What was supposed to have happened is that the army should have followed the rule of law, but instead of following the rule of law they decided to act a script, and that script we believe, is a foreign script and not the Nigerian script. This is because as they were claiming that the brothers and sisters of the Islamic movement blocked the highway for the Chief of Army Staff.

Then what did the law say? What were they supposed to do? Were they allowed by the law to just shoot indiscriminately? No. This is not what the law says. They should have invited the police into the matter. If at all as they claimed, that the highway was blocked, in reality there was no such a thing.

What happened was that in the morning, soldiers were brought in front of the Islamic centre that we call Husseiniyya. Our brothers and sisters in Husseiniyya came out and told them to leave because it is not normal to see them there. They refused and after, they fired on our brothers and sisters and instantly killed five on the spot there. That made those inside the Islamic centre to come out to the street. And at that time the convoy of the army chief arrived. So, it was a spontaneous happening.

We don’t block roads. In fact there is a footage that shows when we held similar programme in the past and a convoy came and it past peacefully. There was no harassment. So, what happened was premeditated and this is what has been happening since then.

On allegations of the Shiites running a parallel government

It is not possible. How can you run a parallel government in another?
If you say we are running a parallel government you should tell us who our governors, our commissioners are and so on are. But, in any given society or group, there are supposed to be a structure for coordinating the activities. And this is not abnormal. Name any group whatsoever; even if it is not religious, it has a structure. So, to claim that we are running a parallel government is a surprise. After all we are paying our taxes. In fact, I can boost that if you go to the police station you hardly see any members of the Islamic movement accused of any criminality. We are law-abiding citizens; we are not running a parallel government. Supposing we are running a parallel government, does that mean they should become the prosecutor, executioner at the same time?

If we are accused of what they are saying does the law say that we should be killed? We are supposed to be arrested, taken to court, tried and sentenced if we are found guilty. Even then we still have the right of appeal and so on. But, nothing of such happened; they are just creating excuses to bury the crimes they committed against us.

You see, what happens was that, especially after the attack, the survivors told us that when the soldiers came they were shouting that today there would no more be Shiites. When has Nigerian soldiers, a secular state become Jihadist? The issue of no Shiites is a slogan made by the Sehafists and the Wahhabists in Saudi Arabia. So, why should the Nigerian army act that script? Check round the globe who are those killing the Shiites mercilessly for no just reason, they are these ISSIS and Boko Haram. Book Haram even attacked our procession and killed more than 20 people. So, not even that alone, those who came to attack us, the soldiers were told that we are not true Muslims. What has Nigerian soldiers to do with such a thing while the constitution has protected the rights of any Nigerian citizen? So, when they saw some of our people praying they were even bewildered.

They asked, do you pray. We told them we pray. They said that we thought you don’t pray because you people are not Muslims. So, you see, they are acting on a script, script of Saudi Arabia and that of Israel. You know we are sympathetic to the Palestine course. When we held our procession last in sympathy to the Palestinian course, the same soldiers came and opened fire on our people, killing more than 34 people for no just reason. We believed that what happens last year was a continuation of what eventually happened earlier.

On the Kaduna State Judicial Commission of Inquiry

The issue of this Judicial Panel set up by the Kaduna State Government; we believe it has no locus standi, in the sense that the state government is a culprit in whatever happened, especially where more than a thousand people were killed. Because on that fateful Saturday, the governor, Mallam El-Rufai was there in the Islamic centre when the soldiers started firing. That moment we thought he, in the capacity as the Chief Security Officer of the state has the right to stop the carnage. But, immediately he left, the soldiers fired upon the brothers and sisters of the movement. They did not stop there; they went to Sheikh El-Zakzaky’s residence and killed almost all the people they found there. After the killings, the Kaduna State Government asked the Kaduna State Property Development Authority (KAPSUDA) to go and demolish the Sheikh’s house and even the rubbles were carted away.

During the Saturday attack, soldiers used bombs and grenade on defenseless civilians. Why should bomb and grenades be used for civilian targets and why should they cart away all the rubbles? Just because they want to cover all the atrocities they carried out so that there will be no evidence against them. They also went to the Islamic Centre, Husseinniyya to demolish the site and carted everything away.

If you go there now you cannot even see any trace of what happened. So, to come around and set up a judicial commission, to inquire what? If they go to the Sheikh’s house what are they going to see. Nothing. Not even that, Sheikh El-Zakzaky is a central figure in all these issues, whatever they want to ask about the whole incident, he is the central figure and why should they continue to hold him in captivity.

Why setting up the commission? The Panel is supposed to be set up when he has his freedom. So, that is why we said that not that we are not going to the commission, but if they want us to appear before the commission they should do the normal thing. The Sheikh should be released unconditionally, so that he can have the peace of mind to say whatever needed to be said before the commission. Again, among the members of the judicial commission there are three persons who are arch-enemies of the movement. They have written and spoken and be calling that any Shiite should be killed, any member or follower of Zakzaky should be killed.
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