By Ibrahim Usman
Nigerian students from various tertiary institutions across the country converged in Abuja on Monday to demand for justice over the brutal killing of 34 people, mostly students, by Nigerian soldiers during Quds Day procession in Zaria on July 25, last year.
Organized by the Academic Forum of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, the students carrying placards with different inscriptions peacefully marched to the Headquarters of National Human Right Commission (NHRC) where they presented complaint of delayed justice six months on.
At the premises of the NHRC, the students were received by the Commission’s Director Protection and Investigation, Abdurrahman Yakubu, and he later addressed newsmen on the stand of the NHRC on the issue.
It would be recalled that the NHRC had pledged to ensure justice was done over the brutal killings of the 34 people, which included 3 of Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky’s biological children.
Chairman of the Commission, Professor made the pledge when he paid a condolence visit on Sheikh Zakzay at his residence in Gyellesu, Zaria.
A press statement issued during the rally, signed by the Coordinator of the Academic Forum of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, Shua’ibu I. Ahmad said: “Academic Forum strongly condemn this barbaric and wicked murder of the three children and the followers of his Eminence Shaikh Ibraheem Zakzaky (H) by the Nigerian Military. It is six months after the 25th July 2014 massacre in Zaria; the world awaits justice to be done.”
The statement tagged, “Zaria massacre: six months on –we still demand justice”, lamented that, despite the open atrocities by the Nigerian soldiers on the promising and vibrant and Nigerian youth in Zaria on July 25, 2014, there was no effort either from the government or its apparatus to bring those murderers to justice.
Speaking to newsmen after presenting their complaint to the NHRC, Shua’ibu Ahmad stressed that, “We would continue to demand for justice. We would not relent in our quest for justice until such a time when the perpetrators of this cowardly act are brought to justice”.