The Islamic Movement in Nigeria
IMN, otherwise known as Shiites, has commended the National Executive Committee
of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, for withdrawing its invitation to
Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State to speak at the association’s annual
general conference coming up later this month.
IMN’s position was contained in a
letter written to the Bar Association and signed by the President of the
Movement’s Media Forum, Ibrahim Musa, and made available on
Friday.
The NBA had withdrawn its
invitation to the governor to speak at its annual conference following an
avalanche of criticisms, protests and even threats of boycott from lawyers and
others.
The letter of commendation by the Islamic Movement partly reads:
“The Islamic Movement noted that
Governor El-Rufai is the most unsuitable person to talk to a body of learned
men considering his legendary disrespect for the rule of law, blatant abuses of
fundamental rights and intolerance to opposing views.
“El-Rufai has been an agent of
impunity and division who supports extra-judicial killings and building of mass
graves.
“He, in collaboration with
officers of the Nigerian army, attacked members of the Islamic Movement,
without recourse to law, leading to the gruesome extrajudicial murder of at
least 347 members of the Movement (by the government’s own admission) in
December 2015 and hurriedly buried them in mass graves.
“Despite the open confession by
the Secretary to the Kaduna State Government, Alhaji Lawal Balarabe Abbas
before a Judicial Commission of Inquiry, governor el-Rufai has refused to
prosecute the criminal elements who perpetrated these crimes, but rather
paradoxically filed charges of conspiracy and culpable homicide against over
250 members of the IMN at Kaduna state high courts.
“Although the Kaduna high courts
have since discharged and acquitted all of them, governor el-Rufai has
continued to seek further ways to subjugate and persecute members and
leadership of the Movement in contravention of his oath of office to ‘do right
to all manners of people according to law, without fear or favour, affection or
ill-will…’
“Certainly, such a person must
not be promoted or allowed to address an Association of learned men, whose
motto is “Promoting the Rule of Law.” We therefore salute your unique courage
to stand firmly on the path of what you profess to promote and stamp out –
impunity and gross abuse of human rights in our beloved country, which loudly
proclaims to operate under the rule of law.”
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com