Buhari, El-Rufai set up commission of indictment not inquiry IMN… Says El-Zakzaky needs a doctor
Members of Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) also known as Shi’ites have rejected the report of Commission of Inquiry (JCI) into bloody clash between the sect members and men of Nigerian Army in Zaria last year’s December, saying it was rather a commission of indictment.
The JCI had in its reports recently submitted to Kaduna State Governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, indicted both the members of the Shiites and Nigerian Army for the lost of lives and property in that avoidable clash.
Addressing newsmen in Kaduna Wednesday, Chairman, Free Zakzaky Campaign Committee, Abdulrahaman Abubakar Yola, said its position on the report remained that some of the members of the inquiry were hitherto against the activities of IMN, hence the possibility of been biased in their contributions while the inquiry lasted.
He said: “It was one that even President Mohammadu Buhari mentioned with so much disgust and animosity during his maiden media chat. He repeated the same as reason his government had to clampdown violently on the IMN while fielding questions on a foreign television news channel in Qatar.
“It was also the clearest indication that the President was not only briefed about the clampdown, he sanctioned and ordered it.
“The Kaduna State government deliberately appointed persons that have consistently maintained that IMN should be banned and it’s schools and facilities closed down and complicated by the government. The Kaduna State government even before setting up the JCI had blamed the IMN for instigating the events that led to the massacre of its members.
“The Judicial Commission of Inquiry made sure that our leader did not get a hearing. Our Legal Team led by Femi Falana, SAN and Festus Okoye Esq. made spirited attempts to secure access to him to no avail. The Judicial Commission also decided not to order the security agencies to produce him because they never wanted him to testify. It is based on this that the Government and the Military and other security agencies found it convenient to lie against him in the Commission”, he added.
He said further that neither El-zakzaky nor any of the member of the sect had ever renounced his citizenship of Nigeria, hence the accusation of been acting as parallel government with total disdain for the formal structures of the Nigerian government as alleged by President Buhari is unfounded.
He however noted with passion that if the federal and Kaduna State government are sincere in their claim that they will do justice in what happened between 12-14 December 2015 in Zaria, they should as matter of urgency release their leader and others with him who have been in the ‘safety’ custody of Department of State Security Service (DSS) in the past eight months, quickly added that taking such a step will show that government is sincere in seeing a peaceful end to the clash.