To the chairman National Human Right Commission
North Central Zone office.
Lamingo Road, Jos, Plateau.
Mr. Chairman Sir,
On Tuesday the 27th day of September 2016 at around 5pm students from various Institutions and schools that include primary pupils secondary school students and tertiary staged a peaceful protest at the Jos University Teaching Hospital (Juth) Terminus old site. The protest was supposed to be terminated at Angwan Rogo. The students staged the peaceful protest to condemn the Zaria massacre that took place on the 12th to 14th December 2015, in which the Nigerian Army under Lt. General Yusuf Tukur Buratai preplanned crack down attack against the IMN members. In the attack they massacre more than one thousand members of the Islamic movement in Nigeria (IMN) and shot the leader of the movement Sheik Zakzaky and his wife Malama Zeenah and yet the authorities detained the revered leader with his wife and followers incommunicado since 14th Dedember, 2015 to date.
At around 5:40pm when the protest was about to be terminated the Nigeria army (Sector two) force their way in and block the peaceful protest at Mobile Filing station along Bauchi road and try to collect the banners and arrest the students by force. The students did not respond to such arrogant behavior instead diverted the protest and terminated it before reaching the target area to avoid lost of innocent lives.
The Army (Sector Two) leaves the scene but to our surprise came back in six military Hilux (Car) heavily armed looking for the students. One of the disguise student heard some of the officers saying they were ready to kill the students. They claimed that we did not ask for their permission before organizing the peaceful protest.
Now the Army is asking for the organizers of such peaceful protest to be handed over to them, but we don’t know their reasons.
We know that one of the sacred liberties of man is the liberty to move freely, unless where legitimate exception is permitted by law, any limitation on a man’s liberty to move freely is an infringement on his fundamental right. The sector two now deploy their troop at every angle where we hold rallies on Friday at the Jos Central Mosque. Nigerian Army has no reason what so ever to attack any peaceful protest, it is our constitutional right to organize peaceful rallies and protest to express our demand.
We present our case to the National Human Right Commission to intervene and protect the long lost peace that has been restored in the state and also to protect innocent lives of students. We will continue our peaceful protest without asking for permission from the Army because it is our constitutional right.
Our demand is simple Free our leader, his wife and all the IMN members illegally detained by the authorities. Find attached are pictures taken at the scene.
Thank you.
Signed
Yakubu Ibrahim
Academic Forum of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (AFIMN), Jos Chapter.