Ibrahim Usman
Barely few days to the annual Quds Day rally being organized by the Islamic Movement in Nigeria under Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky, inciting statement was circulated in the city of Kano claiming that, the Kano zone of the Islamic Movement had on Sunday embarked on a protest against fuel price hike in Nigeria.
The fabricated statement titled, “Shiites in Kano Embark on Protest over Withdrawal of Fuel Subsidy”, was circulated by unknown and faceless group, and made available to some selected media outfits. Some of the reporters, however, in full knowledge of tradition of the Islamic Movement made enquiries and were told truth of the matter before going to press.
According to the false and provocative statement, Sheikh Muhammad Mahmoud Turi made the statement available to pressmen in which the Islamic Movement laments that, “the price of fuel has more than doubled overnight, recalling that although the government promised to alleviate the inherent hardship of the masses as a result of the hike in the price of fuel but the masses have every reason not to trust the government which has failed to fulfill its promises to restore adequate electricity supply and other basic infrastructure in the country”.
In a swift response, Sheikh Muhammad Mahmud Turi described the false statement as ridiculous, baseless and lacks focus.
He pointed out that, it was the handiwork of security operatives to discredit the scheduled international Quds Day rally, which the Islamic Movement had been conducting to express support to the Palestinian cause for the past thirty years.
While calling on the public to ignore the said statement, he expressed the Movement’s resolve to stage the annual peaceful rally this Friday in support of people of Palestine, who have been under daily Israeli merciless offensive for the past two weeks.