Contrary to the statement credited to the Commander, 1
Mechanized Division of the Nigerian Army, Major General Adeniyi Oyebade,
stating that the Army had handed over all our brothers and sisters to civil authorities
and that there is no one with them, we wish to state categorically that there
are members of the Islamic Movement still in military detention facilities.
There are no fewer than 700 brothers and sisters that have
been declared missing by the Islamic Movement that are either killed, burnt alive
or in military detention facilities and it is in this figure that some are
victims of mass burials by the Army.
There are still members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria
in Bassawa Barracks and Nigerian Army
Depot in Zaria as well as in Military Cantonment Jaji.
Also so, no corpses have been handed over to the Movement by
the Army as some of them are still being kept at Ahmadu Bello University Teaching
Hospital Zaria.
We hereby declare the statement by the GOC that they have
handed everybody over to the police as false and mischievous because with the way
the Army is acting and doing everything possible to cover up its sins in the
massacre, we fear they might eliminate those with them and claim that they are
not with them.
We therefore call for the release of all our members that
are currently in detention and being denied legal services.
Buhari’s Government Doing Jihad?
More so, following comments by some Saudi-Wahabbi scholars
in various media outfits commending the government for killing members of the Islamic
Movement in Nigeria and directly praising Governor Nasir El-rufai and President
Muhammadu Buhari for fighting what they described as a “Jihad for them”, we
call the attention of those concerned to immediately dissociate themselves from
such malicious utterances.
These include sermons delivered in mosques and other
religious places including those of the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Sanusi Lamido Sanusi,
who declared Nigeria only for Sunnis in public, thereby displaying the peak of
religious intolerance and marginalization of a section of the society by a
traditional ruler.
The government is aware of the activities of these
Saudi-Wahabbi scholars on radio and television especially in Kaduna and the newspapers
where it is directly described as using state machinery to fight jihad for the
Sunnis against the minority Shi’ites of the Islamic Movement.
We are all aware that there is no such thing as a state
religion in Nigeria and every Nigerian has the constitutional right to practice
any religion of his choice and belong to any sect of his choice but contrary to
this, a democratically elected government is being hailed for ‘doing jihad’ on
behalf of some people.
In as much as the Islamic Movement in Nigeria is a Movement
for all Irrespective of sect and religion with a majority Shi’ite membership, we
are concerned about the sectarian sentiment being sponsored by the state with
the intention of intimidating the members of the Movement.
It is the duty of the government to assure Nigerians that it
is not Involved in using state apparatus in launching attack on and segregating
a part of the citizenry because they do not belong to their religious faith.
Signed:
Ibrahim Musa
National President
Media Forum
The Islamic Movement
0805 078 6093
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