Release Zakzaky Now, Shiites Telll President

Members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria otherwise known as ‘Shiites’ on Sunday asked President Muhammadu Buhari to release their leader, Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky and others who had been in detention since December 2015.



The group also asked the President to issue a condolence message over what it said was an extrajudicial killing of its members in a bloody clash with the Nigerian Army on December 15, 2015 in Zaria, Kaduna State as well as other parts of the North.

The Shiite members, through their “wanted” spokesman, Ibrahim Musa, in a statement in on Sunday in Kaduna, said the President must obey court orders and release their leader,  El-Zakzaky, without any further delay.

The spokesman said, “We call on the President to stop beating about the bush. He must release Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky immediately as ruled by the court of the land.

“We expect him to also order for the immediate release of all those who are still being held in various detention across the country since the brutal attack on us.

“We expect him to take bold steps against the officers that massively killed citizens in Zaria, Kaduna, Kano, Funtua and Sokoto since the onset of the attacks on us in December of 2015.

“We also expect him to take actions to address the matter of victims secretly buried in mass graves.”

The spokesman, who said that the President’s New Year remark on the IMN that Shiite members be treated “humanely and according to the rule of law was a confessional statement and an admittance that hitherto, they have acted inhumanly like beasts.”

The spokesman added, “We demand the payment of compensation for lives and property destroyed in the ill-conceived attacks. We await his word of condolences in relation to those extra-judicially killed since the pogrom started.”

The Shiites had been having a  running battle with the Nigerian Army when they clashed with the convoy of the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Yusuf Buratai, in Zaria, Kaduna State on December 15, 2015.

The clash led to the killing of several Shiites members.

The government officially declared about 347 members dead and buried in a mass grave.

The development led to the establishment of the Justice Muhammad Garba-led Judicial Commission of Inquiry which indicted both the group and the Nigerian Army.

A White Paper released by the government officially declared the IMN as an insurgent group.