We write to inform the public that the FCT Police Command denied lawyers and family members access to the arrested Arba’een mourners. Likewise, the police denied them proper medical care.
We wish to remind the public that a similar operation was conducted by the FCT Police in 2019 when they arrested our brothers and sisters at the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital and detained them at SARS Abbatoir without medication. Those detained without medication died in police custody, and secretly, the police hid their corpses at Asokoro District Hospital. But after several years, Federal High Court ordered the release of the corpses. Thus, we are calling for the attention of all human rights organisations to this inhuman operation by the FCT Police Command.
As earlier stated, we denied the allegations made by the police that the Arba’een Mourners killed two police officers on duty and rendered three unconscious. This allegation is false, fabricated, and misleading. As verified by the former FCT CP Sadiq Bello (2017–2018), the police have their people in free Zakzaky protesters, and certainly any destruction seen during our programmes is from the police informants and people installed in our programmes.
The public is aware that despite police crime and brutality against us, the police cannot stop our religious activities and never push us out of control.
It is pertinent to remind the FCT police that, from January 2018 to date, the police have killed more than 80 adherents of Sayyid Ibraheem Ya’qoub El-Zakzaky.
It is on record that the unlawful arrest and detention of Sayyid Ibraheem Ya’qoub El-Zakzaky (H) and his wife Zeenah Ibraheem during the Tyrant Buhari regime are the main reasons behind the commencement of the daily Free Zakzaky protest in Abuja and despite police brutality, the protests continue. It is also on record that in Abuja, from 2018 to date, the police and army have so far killed more than 80 protesters, 2 journalists, and numerous passersby (Abuja residents).
The public should recall that on Tuesday, January 9, 2018, at the time of a protest at Wuse Zone 6, by Sky Memorial, FCT Police officers mercilessly shot Sheikh Qaseem Umar Sokoto in the leg, which led to his unfortunate death on the 5th of February of the same year. Yet, the next day, Wednesday, January 10, 2018, the police operatives opened fire on protesters at Area 2, Garki, Abuja, where they killed three more protesters: Aminu Ibraheem Gashua, Adamu Salis Dunari, and Bilyaminu Mika’ilu. In another barbaric assault on Monday, April 16, 2018, the police again killed Ahmad Rufa’i at the National Human Rights Commission in cold blood.
Similarly, on Saturday, October 27th, 2018, during the Arbaeen Symbolic Trek and Free Zakzaky protest, officers of the Nigerian Army killed five protesters. Two days later, on Monday, October 29, the Presidential Guards Brigade, a unit of the Nigerian Army, under Brigadier-General Musa Yusuf, waylaid Sheikh Zakzaky’s followers at Kubo checkpoint, close to Mogadishu Barrack, Abuja, where they brutally and cold-bloodedly massacred 42 Ashura mourners. The next day, Tuesday, October 30, 2018, the police attacked the protesters once more, killing five more.
In another attack at the Federal Secretariat on July 9, 2019, the police also killed Ja’afar Mika’il Lafiya and Mahmud Umar. In the same month, and for the second time, on Monday, July 22, 2019, the Nigerian Police, under the order of the former Inspector General of Police, Mr. Mohammed Adamu, again killed 14 protesters: DCP Umar Belel, Mr. Precious Owolabi (a journalist), and a passerby (an Abuja resident).
In January 2020, at Berger Bridge, Wuse, Abuja, they killed another journalist, Mr. Alex Ogbu of Regent Africa Times, while covering the ‘Free Zakzaky’ protest.
On January 26, 2021, police operatives attacked Free-Zakzaky protesters at the National Human Rights Commission, where they killed two more peaceful protesters, Yunusa Abdussalam and Kabiru Ahmed. In the same month, the police also killed Hassan Muhammad Pandogari during a Free Zakzaky protest at Banex, Wuse 2, Abuja.
In another attack by the police on March 27, 2021, the police also killed Muhsin Ja’afar while protesting at the National Human Rights Commission. Similarly, on April 14, 2021, the police shot Hassan Abubakar Aliyu to death at Banex Plaza, Wuse, Abuja.
The public is aware that we filed numerous suits at the Federal High Court, Abuja, and secured favourable judgments. In the judgments, Hon. Justice Taiwo O. Taiwo declared the killing of Bilyaminu Abubakar Faska, Mahdi Musa, and Suleiman Shehu by the agents of the Inspector General of Police during a ‘Free-Zakzaky’ protest at the Federal Secretariat on Monday, July 22, 2021, illegal, unlawful, null and void, and amounting to a gross violation of their fundamental right to life.
While condemning the police brutality on the 2024 Abuja Arba’een Symbolic Trek, we demand for the unconditional release of all those arrested by the police.
Shaikh Rabiu Abdullahi
For the Islamic movement under the leadership of his eminence Sayyid Ibraheem Ya’qoub El-Zakzaky (H),
26 August 2024