DSS arrests El-Zakzaky, wife on return to Nigeria

Leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) Ibrahim El-ZakZaky and his wife, Zeenat, Friday were arrested by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) on arrival to Nigeria.

El-Zakzaky and wife arrived in Nigeria through an Ethiopian Airlines by exactly 12noon at the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja.

Ibrahim Musa, IMN spokesperson confirmed that the Shiites was taken away by the DSS operatives.

El-Zakzaky had rejected medical treatment in India, claiming the Nigerian government frustrated efforts to get his preferred doctors to attend to him and Zeenat.

“All what we have seen here, have shown us that there is no trust, they just brought us here for another detention,” El-Zakzaky said while in India.

Nigerian Government, however, denied El-Zakzaky’s claims.

The permanent secretary at Nigeria’s information and culture ministry Grace Gekpe, in a statement on Wednesday, described the allegations as “foul cry”.

She accused the Shiites leader of seeking medical treatment abroad for “ulterior motives against laid down procedures”.

She said that the claim by the IMN leader that he was held in circumstances worse than he was in Nigeria should be disregarded.

Gekpe said he had “requested that his passport be handed over to him” and also “refused to subject himself to preliminary medical checks.”

The Shiites leader and his wife Zeenat left Nigeria for India on Monday for medical check-up aboard Emirate flight EK786 at about 6:45 pm en route Dubai to Mumbai, India.

Barely 24-hours of arriving India for medical treatment, El-Zakzaky Thursday said he did not trust the doctors assign to treat him in India.

El-Zakzaky said his supposed medical trip has been worse than times he had been in prison detention.

The Shiites leader said he and Zeenat cannot “allow a stranger to treat us, lest not what couldn’t be done with bullets be carried out in a different way.”

El-Zakzaky and his wife have been in the detention of the Nigeria government since 2015.

He faces an eight-count of culpable homicide, unlawful assembly and disturbance of public peace.