Members of the Shiite group have released a statement accusing Kaduna
state governor Nasir El Rufai as seeing them as enemies of the state. El
Rufai had in a state broadcast last Thursday condemned the seeming
lawlessness of the group in the state. Read the statement the Shiite
group released after the cut...
“It is clear that the governor is more like an extremist anti-Shi’ite governor and not a state governor. Going
by the concept and tone of the state broadcast on the extra-judicial
killing of thousands of members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria by
the Nigerian Army, delivered by the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir Ahmed
el-Rufai, it is clear that the governor is more like an extremist
anti-Shi’ite governor and not a state governor. Although
the governor took his time in his speech to elaborate on rights to
religion and social association, but he chose to deny only the Shi’ites
such rights who he sees as his enemies. Clearly,
he spent considerable time collecting propaganda details indicting the
movement, which further buttresses the point that the state governor has
his hands soiled by the blood spilled in the mass extra-judicial
killings perpetrated by the Army. In
that circumstance, no justice should be expected from a speech made up
with details only provided by the antagonistic culprits without hearing
from the other party who are the victims in this case. During
the one-sided speech, he brought up a number of allegations that he
said they discovered. We will take up these one after the other. He
alleged that our centre had no building permit and such other
allegations. One wonders why if the Kaduna state government felt the
Hussainiyah was wrongly erected or breached planning permits, they did
not resort to legal action rather than use of brutal force. Why not get a
court order to effect an eviction? Or does the government mean there
are no magistrates or Alkali left in Zaria anymore? For Governor
El-Rufai to claim that there is no valid paper on the land on which
Husainiyya was built as the basis for this military attack, only further
proves that the attack was premeditated. We
are equally astonished when the Governor in his broadcast claimed that
“they had tried to forcibly acquire the property of their neighbours;
this is apart from subjecting residents to an illegal curfew.” We
challenge the governor to cite one particular case where we forcibly
acquired a property, let alone a time when we imposed curfew. There
had been tension in parts of Zaria since Thursday, 10 December 2015,
when members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria were alleged to have
attacked Gabari, a community on the outskirts of Zaria, in continuation
of a dispute over a mosque. We
would like to ask Mr. Governor how many disputes over mosques have been
reported in the 37 years that the IMN have been there in Zaria? The
idea that Shiites will go and take over a Salafi mosque is as laughable
as the idea that Christian evangelicals will raid a Catholic cathedral
and tell the adherents to get out. This big lie cannot stand any
scrutiny. What happened in Gabari is not “Mosque snatching” as the
governor claims. It was a case of some Salafist bent on attacking the
Shiites in the neighbourhood. In the process they killed one person the
week before and a further three Shiites on Thursday. The governor cleverly stated this in his speech as if to show that we were not the victims but the assailants. The
Governor made mention of the Arbaeen symbolic trek as an instance where
we blocked roads for four days when he stated, “In the last two weeks,
the Islamic Movement of Nigeria has also illegally occupied federal
roads. Over a period of four days, they took over one side of the
federal expressway between Kaduna and Zaria, and the roads to Kano and
Katsina. Clearly, this is a deliberate attempt to twist the facts.
During the Arbaeen symbolic treks, we block only limited part of the
road, and this is to protect persons from traffic accidents, control
mass movement and avoid chaos on the roads. The governor here was trying
to give the impression of a complete occupation of a lane for four
days. That was not the case. Blocks were only from junction to junction
on the roads. The public was informed about these little inconveniences
with apologies on public radio and television stations throughout the
trek. Road users during the period would be surprised by the governor’s
statement. How does
this compare with similar road blocks by others such as the Military
itself that blocks from Jaji to Zaria, and at times from Kaduna to Zaria
or within Zaria metropolis during their parades? Citing road block as
the reason for this brutal attack is just laughable. Where in the law
books is it written that those who block the roads should be massacred
without trials? In
addition, members of the movement are alleged to openly carry and use
offensive weapons.” They challenged the governor to mention those
weapons they found when security agents razed Husainiyya to the ground
or Sheikh Zakzaky’s residence. While the military involved in this
operation said in its press conference that they did not find any
weapons after all the mass killings they did in Zaria, the governor in
his desperate attempt to blacklist the movement, still talked of
offensive weapons. From the speech of the governor one can deduce that
he did all he can to portray the movement as assailants. After
leveling all allegations against the movement, the governor went ahead
to talk of setting up a Judicial Board of inquiry. One wonders why he
didn’t leave the inquiry to determine who are the assailants and who are
the victims. Definitely the scope and mission of the inquiry could be
problematic. The army is a federal institution. It would be difficult
enough for a state judge to inquire into what they have done when they
are not answerable to state officials. How will such a judge now also
overturn conclusions already reached by the governor?”
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