Read What Shiite Group Says Is Happening To El-Zakzaky And His Wife In The Hospital

The Islamic Movement of Nigeria, a Shi’ia group has given hints on the present health status of its leader, Ibraheem El-Zakzaky and his wife, Zeenah.

Premium Times reports that the group in a statement issued on Thursday, January 13, by its spokesman, Ibrahim Musa, disclosed that the leader and his wife were recuperating from the gunshot wounds they sustained in undisclosed location in Abuja.

Musa said the Shi’ia leader was visited on Wednesday, by the contact committee of National Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) to ascertain that fact.

“On Wednesday 13th January, 2016 some members of the contact committee set up by the NSCIA visited Sheikh Ibraheem Yaqoub Zakzaky, leader of the Islamic Movement, who is incarcerated by the federal government since 14th December, 2015.

“According to a member of the committee, Prof. Dahiru Yahya, they met the Sheikh and his wife, Sister Zeenah Ibraheem, in Abuja, and are all recuperating from the bullet wounds they sustained during the army’s attack on the Islamic Movement in Zaria.

“The Islamic movement welcomes this development. It is a step forward in quelling the anxiety of the teeming millions of Muslims and Non-Muslims alike, all over the globe, in knowing at least the whereabouts of the Sheikh and the condition of his health,” he said.

Musa further stressed that the group is resolute in its demand for justice as well as the release of El-Zakzaky.

“However, we are still adamant in our request that the Sheikh be set free unconditionally, because up to now the government has not been able to justify the unjustifiable atrocities committed by the army that led to his arrest.

“So far we have been able to establish some figures that indicate how gruesome the avoidable attack by the Nigerian Army has been.

“In our list, there are about 730 people, men and women who are still missing since that fateful Saturday 12th December, 2015. These missing people were either killed by the army or are in detention. Their whereabouts is still unknown and undisclosed.

“Also there are 220 brothers of the Islamic movement in detention in Kaduna Central prison, some of them with fatal gun wounds and burns.

“Reliable reports from some detention facilities owned by the Nigerian Army in Kaduna, Bauchi and Abuja have confirmed the detention of some brothers of the Islamic movement therein.

“As at the time of writing this statement, no single corpse has been handed to the families of those killed.

“In as much as we commend the NSCIA for its effort to resolve this crisis initiated and executed by the military, we still demand answers to some questions that the Chief of army staff couldn’t answer when the contact committee met him in his office.

“The questions are as follows as narrated in a national daily by a member of the committee: What is the actual number of the dead, and when are they going to be handed over to their relatives for proper burial? Are the injured receiving adequate treatment?” Musa said.

The Shi’ia group said it demands the immediate release of El-Zakzaky, his members as well as the corpses of those killed for them to be properly laid to rest in Islamic rites.

The group also called on human rights activists to pressurize the Federal Government to make sure justice is served by inaugurating an independent judicial commission under the supervision of international community to ascertain what actually transpired.

El-Zakzaky has been in detention since December 14, 2015 after his members clashed with the Nigerian military on Saturday, December 12, 2015. The Shi’ai members blocked the expressway and barred the Chief of Army Staff convoy from passing. The military in retaliation clamped down on the group, killing many and arresting some in the process. Those arrested are said to comprise both women and young men. Many of the arrested members during the clash that were said to have sustained bullet wounds are yet to be attended to by a medical doctor.

The general officer commanding 1 mechanised division of the Nigerian army, Major-General Adeniyi Oyebade, had said the military did not owe the sect an apology over the December 12 clash with soldiers. He maintained that the military could not fold its arms and watch any group or sect threaten the peace and stability of the country.

 
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