Zaria Shiites raises alarm over impending military invasion
(Nigeria) Islamic Movement in Nigeria, based in Zaria, Kaduna
State, mainly Shiites, have raised alarm over alleged plot by the army to clampdown
on its members.
President, Media Forum of the group, Ibrahim Musa in a
statement on Wednesday, said “Reports from Katsina today (Wednesday) have
indicated that the Nigerian army is amassing troops in an attempt at a
clampdown on the Islamic Movement in the town.
“Early in the morning armed troops were seen surrounding the
main Juma’at mosque, where a peaceful maulud procession of the daughter of the
Prophet, Nana Fatima, AS, was scheduled to take off. Seeing this and due to the
peaceful disposition of the Islamic Movement, the take-off venue of this yearly
event was changed to another neighbourhood of the town, and the procession went
round some major streets of the town and ended without any incident.
“However to our consternation, reinforcement was brought
from neighbouring formations of the army, and roadblocks were mounted on almost
all the major roads leading to Katsina city. We have been reliably informed
that the army is set to replicate the wanton destruction of lives and
properties it carried out in Zaria last December. The army it seems has vowed
to attack the Markaz Islamic centre in the town any moment from now, possibly
kill all its occupants and raze it to ground just as it did to Husainiyya Islamic
centre in Zaria.
“The Islamic Movement is amazed at what happened to our
fundamental constitutional right to peaceful assembly and practice of religion
in a democratic setting. This maulud procession is a yearly event that has been
going on in several cities across the Nation for decades without any incident,
like so many of our educational programs. Why we should be the subject of
brutal attack by the authorities is mind boggling.
“We are of the view that there is a ‘jihadi’ element in the
Nigerian army that wants to hide under the cloak of our secular national army
to achieve the clandestine aim of wiping out members of the Islamic Movement
all over the federation. If that is the case, they should come out in the open
and declare their intentions, since the Nigerian army we know is forbidden to
do the bidding of any religious agenda.
“Also reports reaching us from Kebbi state have confirmed to
us that security agencies in various local governments of the state have
ordered members of the Islamic Movement to stop any educational program they
are known to engage in. The report states that any attempt to disregard what
was said to be an order from the Federal government, would be met with ruthless
clamp down. In fact, about ten members of the Islamic Movement are presently
facing prosecution simply for attending an educational session in a mosque in
Birnin Kebbi. Wither freedom of religion in this country?
“The Islamic Movement therefore enjoins fellow citizens to
call the federal government to order. Rather than pursue a religious agenda,
specifically a Saudi-wahabbi sponsored agenda to kill whom they label Shiites,
the federal government should devise means of relieving the masses that voted
it into power the myriads of the day to day hardship they encounter in their
lives.
“Even as we keep watch of events by the army in Katsina and
other places, we wish to reiterate our demand of immediate release of our
leader, Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky and other brothers and sisters of the Islamic
movement held incommunicado for close to the past four months. They did no
wrong; hence they should be set free unconditionally.”
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