Buhari govt, not El-Zakzaky should be facing criminal trial, IMN says

The Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) also known as Shi’ites, on Monday lampooned the government of President Muhammadu Buhari, declaring that it is the one that should be on trial for criminal acts and not its leader, Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky and his wife.

The group was reacting to a statement by the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed that El-Zakzaky and his wife Zeenat were being detained for criminal acts.

The IMN, in a statement by the President of the Media Forum of the group, Ibrahim Musa, berated the Buhari administration for alleged extrajudicial killings by security agents, claiming killing and mass burial of their members by security forces.

It also alleged that the government suppressed the truth and obstructed justice, while accusing Mohammed of talking from both sides of his mouth, adding that the minister had earlier said their leader was being detained for his own protection.

The group said in the statement: “We vehemently and in the most unequivocal terms condemn the recent purported statement attributed to Lai Muhammed that our leader is being held in detention for what he termed crimes and not religion.

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“Indeed, if anyone deserves to be held and tried for crimes, it would be the top officials of the Buhari government who killed over 1,000 unarmed citizens and buried them in mass graves, and have used all the might of governance to hide the truth and obstruct the course of justice.

“The Nigerian government’s legendary disregard for the rule of law and the persecution of members of the Islamic Movement is well known to the international community.

“It is the subject of preliminary investigation by the International Criminal Court at The Hague. Furthermore, local and international human rights organisations like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Islamic Human Rights Commission have all investigated and documented the atrocities meted out to members of the Islamic Movement and its leadership, purely based on their religious beliefs.”

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