The Islamic Movement in Nigeria
(IMN) says the release of Ibraheem El-Zakzaky, its leader, lies in the hands of
President Muhammadu Buhari, not the Kaduna state government.
The group said this while
responding to the claim of Abubakar Malami, attorney general of the federation
(AGF), that the federal government cannot release El-Zakzaky.
Malami had ordered the release of
Omoyele Sowore, convener of the #RevolutionNow Movement, and Sambo Dasuki,
former national security adviser (NSA), from custody of the Department of State
Services (DSS).
Based on this development, many
demanded the release of El-Zakzaky who has been in DSS custody since 2015.
But the AGF said the fate of
El-Zakzaky can only be decided by the Kaduna state government.
Responding on Sunday, Ibrahim
Musa, IMN spokesman, said that the group is not deceived by the “denial of
complicity of general Buhari-led Federal Government.”
Musa said the president while
being interviewed on “Qatari Television Channel” in March 2016, admitted that
“the continued illegal detention of Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky was part of his
major foreign policy achievements.”
“Firstly, the federal
government’s criminal complicity in the heinous genocide in Zaria of December
2015 that led to the extrajudicial murder of over a thousand members of the
Islamic Movement in Nigeria and the subsequent arrest and detention of the
Sheikh is beyond doubt,” Musa said.
“This much was accepted and
testified to by the general himself in an interview he granted a Qatari
Television Channel while on a visit there as early as March 2016. The Saudi
Crown Prince’s self-confessions during a visit to the US that the brutal and
inhuman suppression and the continued illegal detention of Sheikh Ibraheem
Zakzaky was part of his major foreign policy achievements further confirm the
federal government’s involvement, as foreign policy issues are in the exclusive
list of the federal government.
“Was that not why the Saudi king
was the first to call General Buhari in December 2015, soon after the Zaria
genocide, to congratulate him for what he called a victory against terrorism?
Was that not also why General Buhari wanted to smuggle Nigeria into a Saudi-led
military alliance at the time in the name of fighting terrorism? Was not the
then Nigerian Defense Minister, Mansur Dan Ali accorded honour by the Saudi
authorities on behalf of the federal government for the role the Nigerian
military, an agent of the federal government, played?”
The group also said the order by
a federal high court against the DSS, Nigeria police force and the AGF, for the
immediate release of their leader is proof that the federal government is
responsible for El-Zakzaky’s continuous detention.
“For the past four years, the
Department of State Security (DSS) took custody of the sheikh and his wife from
the Army. Nobody is granted access to see him except with the express
permission of these federal agents. It even had to take the involvement of the
AGF for anyone; even the Kaduna state established judicial commission of
Inquiry at the time, to access Sheikh Zakzaky,” the group said.
“Furthermore, when the federal
high court declared the detention of the Sheikh and his spouse illegal and
unconstitutional and ordered their immediate release from custody forthwith,
the order was against the DSS, Nigeria Police Force and the AGF, all
representing the federal government. The Kaduna state government was never a
party in any of these matters. Who is the AGF now fooling that it is purely
Kaduna state affair?
“It is not, therefore, possible,
under any logical reasoning, to exonerate General Buhari and the junta he leads
at the federal level from the continued contemptuous detention of Sheikh
Zakzaky and his wife. Even as the government mischievously concocted a case in
Kaduna, three years after the illegal detention, accusing them of aiding and
abetting homicide before the Kaduna state high court, these charges have since
been squashed by the same court when hundreds of those who stood trial, who the
duo supposedly aided and abetted, had since been discharged and acquitted. The
case against Sheikh Zakzaky is therefore only a mischievous attempt at keeping
the revered leader in perpetual illegal detention.
“Finally, we call on the Buhari
regime to stop deceiving the public by trying to paint itself as saint in a
place its actions are glaringly worse than those of the devil. It should simply
obey the court judgment, free the revered sheikh and stop further false and
fake cases with the deliberate intention of keeping him in detention.”
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users