As rumour spread that the curfew imposed on Kaduna state was to prevent the reaction on the purported death of Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky, members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), otherwise known Shi’ites, have dispelled the rumour that their leader is dead.
A statement issued by the IMN Spokesman, Ibrahim Musa on Sunday said Sheikh Zakzaky is alive and was visited by his family members at the Kaduna Correctional Centre on Saturday.
The Shi’ites however said that, the rumour of Zakzaky’s death was designed by the mongers to compound the current chaotic situation of the country.
However, the son of Sheik Zakzaky, Mohammed Ibraheem Zakzaky has in a statement, pleaded with the government to release his parent from detention.
According to him ,”in the first speech delivered by the then newly elected president of Nigeria Muhammadu Buhari he made a promise to deliver good governance and the rule of law.
“At the very least that would have been enough; and I stood for that.”
He said that was why he could not believe what befell his family and the Shi’ites in Zaria.
He said, “it was something I thought could never happen.”
“It is no secret that in the aftermath my parents were held without trial for years. When the administration was finally unable to continue ignoring all the questions, they claimed to be spending five million monthly to maintain them in protective custody.”
Meanwhile, all constitutionally legal attempts to secure their freedom had succeeded in the courts. But the administration never obeyed any of the court orders, and they used the government apparatus to make an array of all manner of bizarre excuses,” he alleged.
Mohammed alleged that his father and mother were painted in a bad colour as Shiites.
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He expressed worry that in northern Nigeria; “you cannot even drive the 70 kilometres from Zaria to Kaduna without fear of being kidnapped or killed by the elusive army of bandits and hoodlums which seem to pop out of nowhere, extort, rape, loot and kill only to disappear again.”
“Meanwhile the strategy of plunder and destruction in northern Nigeria continues to spread; affecting one and all,” he alleged.
“Finally the campaign of intimidation, torture, humiliation and murder came to a point that, some people decided that enough was enough, and so they reacted.”
“The slogan was to end SARS, which was widely regarded as the most ruthless institution… .. offered token acceptance to the demands and even renamed the much hated SARS/ F-SARS to SWAT. However this did not serve to bring the desired result of ending the protests.”
“My Father Ibraheem Zakzaky is Fulani and Hausa by ancestry, this did not save him..My mother is Yoruba and despite being the daughter of a father from Ibadan and a mother from Ilorin, she cannot have even a knee replacement surgery or any kind of decent medical attention.”
“Flesh and blood I am with all movements seeking for an end to all forms of injustice regardless of whatever hashtag precedes it,” he said.
Vanguard News Nigeria.
Source: allafrica.com
