Students of the Academic Forum of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria staged a free Zakzaky protest on Thursday the 6/04/2017 at the National Assembly Abuja. At the end of the protest,they issued press statement.
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PRESS RELEASE
125 days gone : Democratic Government Disregard The Laws Of The Land
It is exactly one hundred and twenty five days today after a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja presided by Honourable Justice Gabriel Kolawale ordered the immediate and unconditional release of the leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, Shaikh Ibraheem Zakzaky, but those holding him in illegal detention under the guise of “protective custody” have absolutely taken no notice of that important verdict or rather disregarded the ruling made by the court in spite of the deteriorating health condition of the Shaikh.
It is now obvious that those in the corridors of power flout the laws of the land with impunity.
Shaikh Zakzaky urgently needs access to medical specialists for proper medical treatment, in a well and trusted medical facilities most especially ophthalmologists, over the serious concern about the one and only eye that is left for him. He has already lost one as a result of bullets sprayed on him during the high-handed crackdown in the unprecedented massacre in Zaria between 12th and 14th of December 2015.
However, an immediate intervention in a better facility, particularly in any place of his choice, could save the other eye which sight continues to fail day by day.
Unless the Shaikh is deliberately being held and silently allowed to gradually lose his sight and die in detention, the law makers of the land should do something about it right away. Why on earth should the members of the two honourable chambers, the Senate and the House, shouldered with making laws fold their arms as they watch the executive and others flouting the laws of the land with impunity? Alas, with life-threatening gunshot wounds, the Shaikh is still languishing in unlawful custody.
It is quite unconstitutional that the revered Shaikh is still under detention without proper treatment. And this severely infringes on, and tramples upon his fundamental human rights as enshrined in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as well as the provisions of the African charter on human rights. The Shaikh is a citizen who suffers attack from several enemies of peace and humanity including the attack of the created Wahhabi Salafi terrorist group – Boko Haram in the early 2015.
While the victim of the unrivaled pogrom is, inspite of everything, under illegal custody, while the perpetrators walk the streets with hauteur; or, are they laws themselves?
It could be recalled that Nigerian army attacked the Shaikh’s residence at Gyallesu between December 12th and 14th, 2015, gunned down over a thousand of his followers in cold blood, brutally killed his three [3] sons, callously burnt his biological sister and nephew alive, flung at least three hundred and forty seven [347] of them in a single mass grave, shot and fatally wounded him and his wife and took and dumped them in illegal custody. The court has clearly absolved him of any guilt or responsibility for any wrong doing. Then, what the dilly-dallying for?
Inspite of the wanton violations of human rights, high-handed crackdown and enormous destructions of properties, movable and immovable, worth billions of Naira, yet the members remain peaceful. The Movement has been and is still very much non-violent for almost four decades of its existence, but, even as the IMN chooses to tread the path of litigation, the government continues to thwart, frustrate and pervert the course of justice without recourse to the oath of office.
There is indeed miscarriage of justice by its being delayed or by flouting of the laws of the land with latitude. It is said that he who comes to justice should come with clean hands. That was the reason for IMN taking it’s grudges to court of law. But the government having soiled it’s hands with the blood of defenceless, unarmed Nigerian citizens failed to take Zakzaky to court and refused to obey it’s order. The government that masterminds the killing of more than a thousand of its law-abiding people is far more viciously repressive than being democratic.
And this regime is becoming more brutally totalitarian evident by it’s body language.
Thus, the Academic Forum of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria calls on conscientious Nigerians to call the government and its agencies to order, so as to end this illegal and unconstitutional detention of Sheikh Zakzaky.
Signed
S.I Ahmad
06/04/2017
Twitter Handle @afimn14
Academic Forum of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (AFIMN)