The Islamic Movement in Nigeria has called for immediate release of its leader, Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky, who is incarcerated following the army and Shiites clash on December 12, 2015 in Zaria, Kaduna state.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the movement said some members of the contact committee set up by the National Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), on Wednesday 13th January, 2016 met the Sheikh and his wife’s Sister Zeenah Ibraheem in Abuja.
According to Ibrahim Musa, president of the Media Forum of the Movement, the Sheikh and his wife’s sister are still recuperating from the bullet wounds they sustained during the group’s clash with the army in Zaria.
While welcoming the development, the Movement insisted that the Sheikh be set free unconditionally, saying “up to now the government has not been able to justify the unjustifiable atrocities committed by the army that led to his arrest.”
It stated further, “So far we have been able to establish some figures that indicate how gruesome the avoidable attack by the Nigerian army has been.
A) In our list there are about 730 people, men and women who are still missing, since that fateful Saturday 12th December, 2015. These missing people were either killed by the army or are in detention, but whose where about is still unknown and undisclosed.
B) Also there are 220 brothers of the Islamic movement in detention in Kaduna Central prison, some of them with fatal gun wounds and burns.
C) Reliable reports from some detention facilities owned by the Nigerian army in Kaduna, Bauchi and Abuja have confirmed the detention of some brothers of the Islamic movement therein.
D) As at the time of writing this statement, no single corpse has been handed to the families of those killed.
“In as much as we commend the NSCIA for its effort to resolve this crisis initiated and executed by the military, we still demand answers to some questions that the Chief of army staff couldn’t answer, when the contact committee met him in his office. The questions are as follows as narrated in a national daily by a member of the committee: “What is the actual number of the dead, and when are they going to be handed over to their relatives for proper burial? Are the injured receiving adequate treatment?”
“In view of the above; We renew our call for:
1.The unconditional release of our leader, Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky and all his followers unjustifiably being detained.
2.Corpses of those killed should be handed over for proper and befitting Islamic burial.
3.We also reiterate that an independent judicial commission under the watchful eyes of the international community be set up to unearth the truth in this matter and the perpetrators of the Zaria 12th -14th pogrom(massacre) be brought to book. Only then can justice be seen and said to have been done.
“Therefore, We call on the well-meaning Nigerians and Human Rights activists here in Nigeria and the diaspora to keep on with the pressure on the federal government until justice is done on Zaria massacre of 12th December, 2015.”
