By Muhammad Darazo
I read a sponsored article published with the above title by some online magazines and shared by some activists mostly on Twitter. The article was written by one Gabriel Onoja, whose identity I doubt.
The article was full of biased and irrational arguments which was aimed at tarnishing the image of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria and demonstrating hatred and envy to the just launched #BringBackOurZariaGilrs campaign. Although, the disguised writer’s article seems to be a sponsored conspiracy, but it lacks professionalism in disseminating the treacherous aim of sabotaging the Islamic Movement In Nigeria.
Onoja’s complot was based on the #BringBackOurZariaGilrs campaign which was launched within the week by some members of the Islamic Movement In Nigeria. He couldn’t control his emotions and delirium feelings in expressing his envy over the attention and concern of activists, feminists and freedom fighters which the #BringBackOurZariaGilrs campaign is acquiring especially on Twitter. The said Onoja lacks humanity to understand the feelings of the oppressed people of Zaria. Instead, he sided with the Army of oppression, thereby claiming that the trigger of the #ZariaMassacre was an assassination attempt by the members of the Islamic Movement on the Chief Of Army Staff, not knowing that the Army itself withdrew that claim because it has no reasonable, factual, absolute and authentic evidence.
Onoja deliberately failed to mention the heinous crime committed by the Nigerian Army against the Islamic Movement In Nigeria, where on the 12th of December 2015, an usual appearance of men of the Nigerian Army, heavily armed with dangerous weapons and bullet reload boxes for exigency, stationed directly opposite the entrance gate of Hussainiyyah Baqiyyatullah, evoked the attention of some brothers of the Islamic Movement to seek for enquiry from the Army about the abstruse act. When the brothers asked, the person in charged replied, that they were there to protect the Chief Of Army Staff (COAS) from possible attack, as they were about to commence a passing out parade at DeportNA. The brothers told them that the Islamic movement In Nigeria had never in the past, attack anyone, and the Islamic Movement will never engage in such act, not even in future. The Army couldn’t say anything reasonable, but showing signs that they have a mission to accomplish. As the Islamic Movement had being subjected to illegitimate attacks from the Nigerian Army, the brothers had to insist. When the brothers insisted, the Army took shooting positions, threatening to shoot the members of the Islamic movement at their center. The brothers called for God’s protection by chanting Allahu Akbar (Allah is great). On hearing that, the Army started shooting the brothers, thereby killing some of them and injured some. After the shooting, the Army retreated to some kilometres.
Some hours later, the Army came back with the convoy of the Chief Of Army Staff. They encountered some youths protesting the murder of their brothers. The Army claimed that they want to pass, while the brothers were trying to forward their complain about the actions of the men of the Nigerian Army. The Army opened fire on the protesters and killed some of them including women and children. The convoy of the Chief Of Army Staff proceeded to its claimed destination. Less than an hour later, another heavier armed group of the Nigerian Army went back to the center. They sieged the center and waited for command until night. While the members of the Islamic Movement were trying to save the lives of the injured victims, women and children were crying woefully for the lost of their loved ones. The Army commenced Hussainiyyah Baqiyyatullah invasion at around 10pm. They killed as much as they could, using dangerous weapons and explosive devices. Hussainiyyah Baqiyyatullah was completely invaded at dawn. Many people were killed while some were injured. The Army arrested the injured and handed them over to the police few days after the crime, while they abducted the surviving girls to date.
The attack was dilated to Gyallesu, the residence of the leader of the Islamic Movement, Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky (H). They killed as much as they could at Gyallesu using every weapon at their disposal. The attack at Gyallesu include rape, torture, burning to death and humiliation of many kind. After successfully killing everyone standing, they moved ahead to humiliate the leader of the Movement. They killed 3 of his 4 remaining sons at his presence, they burnt his sister, Hajia Fatima Yakub Zakzaky to death while he hears her crying voice, they shot his wife 6 times while he watches, and they rained bullets on him. They finally abducted him and his wife and took them to an unknown place while they sustained injuries.
After successfully accomplishing the Massacre, they abducted the surviving Zaria Girls and took them to an unknown destination. For 9 months, the Nigerian Army did not disclose the whereabout of the Zaria Girls. On the 13th of December, 2015, one of the Zaria Girls called to confirmed that the Army arrested them, while some of them were bleeding extensively due to the injuries they sustained, courtesy of the Nigerian Army’s bullets. One of the surviving victims of the attack whose life has been ruined by the Army’s bullet in her private part revealed that, together with her, the abducted Zaria girls were taken to the Basawa Barracks. She was taken to the hospital by the coward Nigerian Army due to the worsening of her injury, while the remaining Zaria Girls were whisked to an unknown destination.
For the Information of Onoja, his sponsors and people of his kind, the global fame gained by the #BringBackOurZariaGilrs campaign is because of humanity which only exist in humans and not otherwise. For Onoja’s claim that the #BringBackOurZariaGilrs campaign "instead of being about phantom abducted girls, is actually a cover for the sect members to stage protests on the streets and possibly breach security". The Islamic Movement In Nigeria’s weapons are positive reasoning, truth and good conduct. We have been conducting our affairs peacefully, calling people to the truth for the last 36 years. So you cannot come overnight and attribute violence to us, that we now resort to breaching security. This is impossible. We save people’s lives, not threaten them. Onoja also claimed that "all those arrested were handed over to other security agencies".
This claim by Onajo debunked and peeled the hidden motive behind his article. Onajo is trying to crave the attention of Nigerians and vindicate his sponsors on the crime of Our Zaria Girls abduction through irrational postulations. If I may ask Onajo and his sponsors, If the Nigerian Army handed over all those arrested to other security agencies, and the security agencies revealed that no any girls is in their custody, where then are the Zaria Girls? Onajo and his sponsors should just confess for their crime. Referring to the Kaduna State Judicial Commission of Inquiry, Onajo said in the article that "the report expected that culpable ones among them should go on trial and they know where the implementation of this report will leave them". Then who are the culpable ones? If not his sponsors, the Nigerian Army, that massacred innocent and defenseless citizens, who is culpable? May be Onajo did not read the report completely. In trying to vindicate the real culprits, the report revealed that the Nigerian Army’s operation on the Islamic Movement was not based on the Rule Of Engagement (ROE). Therefore, the attack was illegitimate. The report called for the Government’s action to prosecute those that master minded the attack.
Call for humanity, Our Zaria Girls are students of different higher institutions in Nigeria. The crime against them cost them a complete session in their schools. Some of them are facing the threat of loosing their academic programs due to the policy of their schools, that if a student dipper for a complete session, he/she must rejoin the program in the next session, otherwise he/she will be withdrawn. The school residential permit of some of them is about to expire because they are already final year students.
Nigerians should understand that Our Zaria Girls are facing oppression from the Nigerian Army. Speaking for them and fighting for their rights is a determinant for ones humanity. Onajo and his coward sponsors should understand that "Enough is Enough", Our Zaria Girls did nothing wrong. Their rights are not privilege, they must be released.
The culprits behind the abduction of Our Zaria Girls must be prosecuted. Until then, we will live to fight for their release. May God in his infinite mercy, hasten the emancipation of @OurZariaGirls.
#FreeZakzaky
#BringBackOurZariaGilrs
@OurZariaGirls