IMN:

Wrong to Link Sheikh Zakyzaky’s Prolonged Detention to National Security

Rasa - Members of Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) faulted Federal Government’s claims hinging its refusal to release their leader, Sheikh Ibrahim Zakyzaky, to national security.

News ID: 429968

Date: 29 May 2017 - 19:19

RNA - The Islamic group also chided the Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Alhaji Garba Shehu, for his statement on behalf of the Presidency justifying the illegal detention of Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky and his wife, Malama Zeenah Ibraheem, Nigeria's Guardian reported.

Spokesperson for IMN, Mallam Ibrahim Musa, said the Presidency “hinges their illegality on fear factor,” stressing that “their fear is that there would be a breakdown of law and order if Sheikh Zakzaky was allowed to go home and Government has a responsibility to ensure his safety.”

Musa said IMN is thoroughly embarrassed and even shocked that the presidency will keep defending its impunity against the valid and subsisting order of the Federal High Court made on December 2, 2016; ordering it to release Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky, by hiding behind the cloak of protective custody.

“We believe this defies logic, as it is a blind and baseless defence of the indefensible. Before the inhumane attack by the Nigerian Army on Sheikh Zakzaky and the IMN, we have been living peacefully with the society.

“It is therefore baffling to put forward such a baseless reason of protective custody for holding the revered Sheikh. Was it the society that attacked and killed over one thousand followers of Sheikh Zakzaky?

“Who demolished the Islamic Centre of IMN? Who desecrated the graveyard of IMN? These heinous crimes were committed by the Nigerian Army,” Musa stated.

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