Despite the proscription order,
top members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) on Friday, August 2nd
allied with the decision of daughter of their detained leader, Ibraheem
El-Zakzaky that protest will continue until her parents are released.
The group also disowned the
statement issued last Wednesday by its spokesman, Ibrahim Musa that they have
suspended the protests inline with the proscription of the sect by the Federal
Government through a court order.
Suhaila Zakzaky in videos shared
on her Facebook page last Thursday, questioned the ban and said the protest
will continue until her father is released. A statement by a top member of the
IMN, Abdullahi Musa, for Academic Forum, Sisters’ Forum and Abul-Fadl, said
other IMN members were not informed about the ban on protests.
Musa said: “On the 31st day of
July, 2019 a press statement titled “We Are Temporarily Suspending Our Street
Protests” and signed by Malam Ibrahim Musa, President of the Media Forum of the
Islamic Movement in Nigeria, went viral. The article was published and aired by
numerous media outlets, both local and international.
“In the statement, it was written
that “this was mainly to create openings into the resolution of problems,
especially the court case instituted by our lawyers on the proscription order
by the federal government this week.” It further claimed that “if at all any
protests occurred anywhere in the country, it might be this notice hasn’t
reached those in the field or this message is misunderstood or it is some
security agents who are behind it.
“First of all, we would like to
state for the record that apart from members of the media forum none of us was
informed of this prior to seeing it in the papers and online. Secondly, the
media forum of the Islamic Movement is supposed to consist of Press men and
thus has no involvement in the organizing of our ceremonies, our protests or
legal activities among others. Thirdly, no decision of the Islamic Movement in
Nigeria has ever been communicated on the page of a newspaper.
“Contrary to what the statement
may insinuate; it is important to note that the proscription order was not an
act of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, but rather from some Federal High Court
in the capital Abuja. Bear in mind that courts do not make laws, the National
Assembly does; and there is a process involved. Under the Constitution even the
president lacks the legal authority to simply pronounce edicts into law;
Nigeria is not an absolute monarchy. Most preeminently, the right to protest
peacefully is enshrined in the Nigerian Constitution. Impunity is not.”
The IMN disowned Ibrahim Musa as their
spokesman adding that: “In the aftermath of the publication of this
unfortunately misleading statement, we subsequently tried to investigate the
source of this frankly confusing document. We have consulted extensively with
fellow followers of Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky on this matter. Our only conclusion
is that this whole affair was a combination of misinformation,
miscommunication, human error and other significant factors.
“Here in Abuja, we are legally
protesting the illegal detention of our leader and his wife. By doing this for
our leader, we are also legally protesting against all forms of illegal
detention, extrajudicial killings, among numerous other illegal perpetrations
of injustice, by this current administration.
The statement signed by Malam
Ibrahim Musa of the media forum does not, in any way, reflect the beliefs and
convictions of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria. A single representative of a
Forum within the Islamic Movement has no authority to single-handedly dictate
his opinion on every one of us. Only our leader Sheikh Zakzaky may do
that.
“For this reason, we are
compelled to caution the media to never treat, any further, such explicit
declarations by any member of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria in general, and
Ibrahim Musa in particular, without a grain of salt.
We wish to also explicitly state
that we are fully determined to continue our protests. We shall continue our
peaceful protests, uninterrupted and unhindered till our leader Sheikh Zakzaky
is free, for as long as it takes, regardless of obstacles. Until Sheikh
Ibraheem Zakzaky is Free, our protests will continue.”
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