Army silent as Shiites warn FG not to invent violence • Rights group seeks release of imprisoned cleric
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).
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