The House of Representatives was thrown into a rowdy session Tuesday when lawmakers were divided on whether the federal government should release the leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (aka Shiite), Sheikh Ibrahim el-Zakzaky. As tempers flared, the House quickly adopted a motion to go into executive session to resolve the matter.
The lawmakers however adopted a motion to invite security and service chiefs to shed more light on the sustained violent protests by Shiite members in Abuja. The debate on the need to release the Muslim cleric who has been in DSS custody since 2015 started after a lawmaker moved a motion in that regard. In his prayer, Hon. Haman Hembe asked the federal government to obey various court orders to release El-Zakzaky.
In a related development, the Shiites have vowed to continue protesting for the release of their leader.
“Even though heavily armed forces laid siege of brothers and sisters at Banex Plaza today, teargassing and shooting live rounds of ammunition, free EL-Zakzaky protests will continue nonstop unless our leader regains his freedom to go and tend for his seriously deteriorating health condition,” Shiites spokesman Abdullahi Muhammad Musa said.
Musa, who spoke at the funeral ceremony of their dead members in Suleja, Niger State, said about 40 members of the Shiites died during Monday’s protest in Abuja. “Yesterday, at Federal Secretariat, the bureaucratic seat of the Nigerian government, police gunned down close to forty protesters, wounded scores and arrested very many.”
However, the police’s figure differs from the Shiites spokesman. Police said 11 Shiite protesters died during the protest. The protest on Monday, July 22, also claimed the life of Usman, who was in charge of operations at the Federal Territory Police Command, a journalist with Channels TV and about 11 Shiites.
Shiites leader El Zakzaky was charged with murder in April 2018. El-Zakzaky’s alleged offence happened on December 2015 when Shiites and a convoy of Nigeria’s army chief, Tukur Buratai clashed. Despite the continuous clash with security operatives, Musa said the killings “can never put off a conceptual cause as the Islamic movement is, and the struggle continues.”
“Trigger-happy security personnel should know that senseless killing can never put us off the streets of Abuja, it only adds more power to our elbow; no amount of cruelty and inhumanity will deter us. Our leader should just be released. Tomorrow is another day for us, and protests continue.”
