DETAINED ISLAMIC LEADER FEARED DEAD
DETAINED ISLAMIC LEADER FEARED DEAD
Nigerian Army
spokesman Brigadier-General Sani Usman
An Islamic leader in
the custody of Nigerian authorities might have died. The nation’s capital,
Abuja, was tense for the most part of yesterday, while military armoured tanks
and heavily armed policemen patrolled the streets of Kaduna in a show of force.
The Guardian reliably
learnt the cleric might have passed away yesterday, with the authorities
hurriedly putting security measures in place to forestall violence by his
supporters and persons sympathetic to his cause.
A meeting of a
paramilitary body in Kaduna, yesterday, was swiftly concluded with members
warned to stay indoors and not travel back to their states for fear of a
possible backlash following the rumoured death.Followers of the embattled
cleric have for months called for his release. The authorities, however,
appeared to have had other reasons for holding him, despite court orders
granting him bail.
The army, allegedly
holding the cleric in “protective custody”, was silent on his current fate.
Calls and text messages to spokesman, Brigadier General Sani Usman Kukasheka,
at 3:18 p.m. and 3:48 p.m., yesterday, to confirm the matter were not replied
to before press time.Other security sources contacted for confirmation also
kept sealed lips.
A call by The
Guardian to the embassy of a notable Arab country with presumed links to the
cleric did not yield any result, as the cultural envoy was said to have
travelled overseas and was not in a position to comment.The Civil Liberties
Organisation (CLO), meanwhile, has blamed President Muhammadu Buhari for the
development.
Executive Director,
Ibuchukwu Ezike, accused Buhari of impunity and disdain for the rule of law
since assumption of office.This president may have just created another Boko
Haram, Ezike said, adding that the administration’s incarceration of Nigerians
without charge and in defiance of court orders is a threat to democracy and
national stability.
Insisting the leader
of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) must be released for urgent medical
care, the group, yesterday, warned the Federal Government not to use the
rumoured death of Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky as pretext to create a crisis.
“Security agents are
spreading false information and rumours, with a view to breaking our will and
causing confusion, so that they could seize the opportunity to turn our
peaceful protests into violence. “Credible reports have confirmed that hoodlums
have been commissioned by the authorities to foment trouble by burning tyres
and property in the course of our peaceful processions. Part of their evil plot
involves spreading false news of the alleged death of our leader, Sheikh
Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, due to illness, on fake Facebook profile pages,” said IMN
spokesman, Mallam Ibrahim Musa in Kaduna.
The group said the
security agencies “had hoped to achieve their mischievous aims by wreaking
havoc and attributing the same to supposed reaction of members of the Islamic
Movement. When all their evil machinations failed woefully, they went wild and
opened fire on peaceful protesters that were demanding the immediate release of
Sheikh El-Zakzaky to enable him to attend to his deteriorating health.”
It added: “This
police fury followed their inability to cash in on the effects of such fake
news and reports they have circulated on social media to incite violence to
discredit the Islamic Movement.
“The Islamic Movement
will like to reiterate its age-long stand of adopting peaceful means in
pursuing its objectives. We vehemently reject any attempt to label us as
violent. We are so orderly than for anybody to incite us into taking illogical
violent means. We would not be held responsible for anything contrary to our
peaceful resolve and methods.”
In the same vein,
pro-democracy and non-governmental organisation, Human Rights Writers
Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), yesterday, condemned suppression and killings
by security forces of IMN protesters.
In the statement in
Abuja, National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, urged the Federal
Government to release from detention Colonel Sambo Dasuki (rtd), El-Zakzaky and
his wife, and thousands of members of the proscribed Indigenous People of
Biafra (IPOB).