IMN members take to the streets again.

By Abdulmumin Giwa

Members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, IMN have taken to the streets once again in a massive peaceful protest calling for immediate and unconditional release of the leader of the Movement Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky.

The leader of the Movement along with his wife Malama Zeenat Ibraheem and hundreds of other members have been in illegal custody where they are being kept in different detention facilities across the country since the 12^th to 14^th December attack by the Army.

The protest which started from Ahmadu Bello Way in Kaduna metropolis to Tudun Wada area witnessed men, women and children in their thousands carrying posters of Sheikh Zakzaky and raising colorful flags with inscriptions of “Free Zakzaky” on them.

In a brief rally at the end of the protest march, Malam Aliyu Tirmizi who led the protest called on the government to unconditionally release the leader of the Movement as well as other members in detention.

He also called on the government to rebuild all the properties of the IMN it demolished during the pogrom that led to the killing of over 1000 members of the Movement.

On the issue of the mass grave which the state government confessed burying 347 members of the movement at night, Malam Tirmizi called on the government to exhume the mass grave and hand over the corpses for befitting burials.

He reiterated that the IMN shall continue to remain peaceful and violence-free in seeking for the enforcement of the fundamental rights of its members in illegal and unjustifiable detention across the country.

Malam Tirmizi stated that the IMN shall continue to stage protest marches and rallies indefinitely until the call for the release of its members get to the ears of the concerned authorities.

Meanwhile, the IMN has debunked rumors that it is planning to resort to kidnapping military officers to use them as ransom for the release of its leader. It condemned this accusation describing it as a mischievous insinuation.

The IMN however reiterated its position that it shall continue to seek for justice through peaceful means as evident in the steps it had taken in the last five months since the pogrom that include filing cases before the ICC in Hague and the Federal High Courts in Nigeria.

 

 

Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky Vs DSS: Hearing to commence June

By Abdulmumin Giwa
This is to make public the most recent development in the case between Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky and the State Security Service and two others.
Hearing in a case of fundamental human rights violation filed against the State Security Service (SSS), Nigeria Police Force and Attorney General of Federation by Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky is to begin on the 14th of June 2016 at the Federal High Court in Abuja.
This was ruled by the presiding judge Justice Gabriel Kolawale after the respondents in the case failed to appear in court for the mention of the case.
This followed a motion by the head of the Counsels representing Sheikh Zakzaky, Femi Falana SAN that the respondents have not indicated their wish to oppose the application filed against them during the mentioning of the case before Justice Kolawale.
Falana SAN stated that having been served with all the processes since the 3rd of May 2016 in the case of the 1st and 2nd respondent and on the 6th of May in the case of the 3rd respondent hearing could commence.
The judge instructed that the respondents be served with fresh hearing notice against the fixed date for hearing in the case insisting on need to hasten up as the case borders around fundamental human rights in which delay is discouraged.
In a similar case between the wife of Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky, Malama Zeenat Ibrahim and the same respondents, the same positions were held by the court in which hearing will also commence on the 14th of June 2016.
These are some of the series of cases filed by the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, IMN calling for the enforcement of the fundamental human rights of the leader of the Movement and his wife against the DSS, NPF and AGF.
Falana SAN told newsmen in Abuja that the rights of his clients have been trampled upon since they were held in detention by the DSS for the past five months from 14th of December 2014.
He further expressed confidence that justice shall reign at the end of the case saying “I have confidence in the judiciary”.
The case is seeking the immediate release of the leader of the Movement and his wife as well as the payment of damages to each of them in the sums of N2b.

Army/COAS absent from court

By Abdulmumin Giwa

The Nigerian Army and the Chief of Army Staff have failed to appear in court for hearing in separate cases filed against them by Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky and his wife Zeenat Ibraheem seeking N2b each as damages for the violation of their fundamental rights during the 12^th to 14^th December, 2015 clampdown on the Islamic Movement in Nigeria.

The court was informed that the Army and the COAS were served the hearing notice on the 10^th of May 2016 to which none of the two parties had responded.

Both the two cases filed at the Federal High Court Kaduna had the Nigerian Army, Chief of Army Staff, Attorney General of the Federation and Attorney General of Kaduna State as respondents before Justice S.M Shuaibu as presiding judge.

The judge instructed that the Army and the COAS be served another hearing notice for the hearing coming up on a new date, 7th of June 2016 insisting on the urgency in the case being a case that borders on fundamental human rights.

The Counsel representing Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky, Maxwel Kyom moved a motion seeking the court to fix another hearing date to allow for respondents in the case to hand over their counter affidavits which the judge conceded to in the case of Sheeikh Zakzaky but disagreed to continue the hearing as he demanded in the case of Zeenat Ibraheem.

Justice Shuaibu accepted the demand by the Counsel representing the Attorney General of the Federation, Enoch Simon seeking a further time to prepare his counter affidavit explaining that there is need for that being a case bordering on human rights.

The Counsel to the Attorney General of Kaduna state, Bayero Dari accepted the court’s decision on the matter in which his client is involved.

State/IMN: Another case further adjourned

By Abdulmumin Giwa

The case before Justice David Wyoms charging 81 out of the 266 members of the IMN arrested after the Zaria pogrom of criminal conspiracy, culpable homicide, disturbance of public peace and forceful restraint has further been adjourned to the 21^st of June 2016.

This was necessitated by the absence of the 38 out of the 81 accused persons from the hearing who were either said to have been released of handed out on bail to reties.

Counsel to the state government, Barrister Beyero Dari told the court that the 38 persons absent from the court were given out on bail to one Musa Usman who was also present at the court and that he undertook to produce them before a sister court with a similar case.

In the case, State versus Auwal Yakubu and 80 others with charge number KDH/KAD/37C/2016, the Counsel to the state produced police bail documents signed by Musa Usman to the court as evidence that the accused persons were handed over to him on bail.

Counsel to the Islamic Movement, Barrister Festus Okoye disagreed saying that the accused persons were released unconditionally by the police because they were women and minors while Musa Usman only took a pregnant woman and a few others with severe bullet wounds on bail.

He said that there were three documents in which two were signed by Musa Usman while the third was fraudulently attached to a bail bond to give the impression that he took over 60 of the women and children on bail. He added that the police gave Musa Usman the last list of accused on Friday 6 May 2016 while those on the list were released since December 2015.

The case was then adjourned to the said date 21^th June 2016 for the police to produce the accused persons in court.

Meanwhile, the sureties have been whisked away by the police after disagreeing with the bail documents produced by the counsel to the state government before the court.

It would be recalled that the state government had earlier announced the unconditional release of about 60 women and minors arrested during the Zaria pogrom.

 

 

Re-Revealed: The untold truth about army-Shiites clash

By Abdulmumin Giwa

In response to the above mentioned article written by one Johnson Obioha and posted on Naija.com, I dropped a comment and shared the post on facebook. Following another revelation by the team of the News Rescue editors on the plan of the perpetrators of the Zaria pogrom to infiltrate the entire occurrence and give it a new picture by bringing a Boko Haram narration into it, I thought it necessary to actually produce this rejoinder.

News Rescue revealed that the Army was not happy with what the Kaduna state government did revealing the truth about the mass burial. This revelation has left the army to come up with the true figure of those it indiscriminately killed, and also a genuine reason for the killing.

The revelation of the mass burial of 347 members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria has strongly battered the already sick human rights records of the Nigerian Army. The Army is now looking for a way out of this mess after the Kaduna state government has made effort to save itself from further committing another crime of joining to hide a crime against humanity jointly committed by it and the Army.

Some of those to give the entire incident a new narration including the author of the above mentioned piece are to introduce lies to implicate the Kaduna state government for the killing of many of the IMN members.  The Army claims it handed over “a few corpses” to the state government while the state government claims it buried 347 with the Army present at the burial.

The option for them here is to bring in the Boko Haram theory and claim that the killings were actually perpetrated by Boko Haram and not the Army though I don’t understand how.

In what looked more like a biased and one-side analysis devoid of facts, the writer went as far as depicting the IMN as a dangerous armed group with stockpile of arms.  This was very mischievous as he depicted the “codon and search” theory of the five theories given for the killings by the Army.

I expected Obioha to have asked whether the claimed stockpile of arms for which the army murdered 347 members of the IMN, who are also innocent Nigerians including women, children and the aged and hurriedly buried them in the middle of the night, were found, but he mischievously refused to.

The entire saga went by without any stockpile of arms discovered even as all the buildings in four locations owned by the IMN, including the residence of the leader Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky, were not only demolished but the rubles packed away. No traces of arms found.

My take is that, if there is a problem between the Nigerian Army and the Kaduna state government then it is as a result of the impending case at The Hague as everyone is working to save his neck including the Army Chief the writer is working to protect.

Amnesty International was condemned by the Army for digging into the pogrom and coming out with facts including the mass grave for which the Army is not happy. Obioha made the same effort in his own way to discredit the internationally reputable human right organization.  All those on the side of the Army accuse the Amnesty International of partiality for which no one is surprised.

The question here is in whose interest is the calumny against Amnesty International who was on the field investigating what actually happened directly from victims and eye-witnesses? It had sessions with not less than 90 people of different categories and inspected all sites of the pogrom in a period of not less than a month.

While the Amnesty was busy on the field the Army and the Kaduna state government were busy sponsoring propaganda to demonize the IMN.  The Kaduna state government on its side was paying poverty-stricken people and groups, including religious groups, to come out on television and radio to accuse the IMN of suppressing them for the past 20 years. The Army on the other side was busy trying to sway public opinion by sponsoring advertorials in newspapers, propaganda clips on television and rallies and conferences to condemn the IMN and insinuate hatred for Islamic Republic of Iran among ignorant Nigerians. Definitely with all the monetary facilities made available by the Army, hungry writers would not refuse the temptation of having a taste of what could best be described as ‘blood-money’. People get murdered and you use your pen to defend the murderers for a token.

Also, all references made on IMN by Obioha are not from direct investigation or contact with the IMN but from defensive statements made by its presumed adversaries trying to justify and cover up for the crimes against humanity they have committed. They are doing all efforts to cover up for the incessant killings.

Obioha in his piece treated the issue of the senseless killing with total neglect as though those killed were ants and not human beings simply because they are members of the IMN to further buttress the point that he was on a mission. These people that were killed and mass buried didn’t fall from the sky or grow out of the ground, they are human beings and they have parents, relations, friends and loved ones like any other person. I am sure hunger or poverty is not enough reason to pick up one’s pen against them.

If Obioha is suggesting that the IMN is armed and it had a deadly “clash” with the Army in which the Army was able to kill 347 of them according to official figures (I make this emphasis because the Amnesty International is suggesting the possibility of other hidden mass graves because out of the total missing persons it discovered over 350 are yet to be accounted for), then what is the casualty figure on the side of the Army? Or were they so magnificent that none of them was killed by the thousands of “armed” and “military trained” IMN members as they claim?

Definitely there was no such thing as a clash between the Shiites and the Army but a planned attack and intended murder of innocent and unarmed IMN members. The term clash was mischievously introduced to justify the military genocidal attack on the IMN and to deceive the public.

I will suggest to Obioha checks for who is interested in bringing the Army Chief to disrepute from the class of those who might have falsified intelligence reports to instigate him into incessant killings to satisfy their own whims and caprices.

I will also state for the records that, there was never a time anybody reported or witnessed members of the IMN pelting Governor El-Rufai with sachet water but Obioha lied about it. El-Rufai visited the revered leader of the IMN, Sheikh Zakzaky at his residence to condole him for the earlier murder of his three sons by the Nigerian Army under President Goodluck Jonathan and for that he got a reciprocal sympathy from members of the IMN at individual levels.

More so, IMN members at individual levels had hope that the embattled Chief of Army Staff was going to investigate and bring to book the perpetrators of the earlier killings of its members by the Army under President Jonathan. The IMN might have hardly finished compiling its complaint and reports on the July 2014 attack, where 34 of its members were either killed or tortured to death including three sons of the leader, when the the movement was attacked unawares again.

I think Mr Obioha needs to wear a human face when next he writes about the Zaria pogrom.

 

 

 

 

KDSG/IMN: Case Further Adjourned

By Abdulmumin Giwa

The case filed before Justice Hajaratu Gwada at the High Court Kaduna by the Kaduna state government against Mahdi Munkaila and 90 other Members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria has today been further adjourned to 1^st of June 2016.

The case with charge number KDH/KAD/40C/2016 is accusing the arraigned members of the IMN with criminal conspiracy, culpable homicide, unlawful assembly, disturbance of public peace and wrongful restraint.

The judge adjourned the case to allow each of the accused persons to be served individual charges being a criminal case instead of the collective charge filed by the state government against all the accused.

Counsel to the defendants, Barrister Festus Okoye drew the attention of the court to the fact that his clients were not served individual charges for the case against them being a criminal charge to commence.

On the other hand the counsel to the state government Barrister Bayero argued that the accused persons have been served a collective charge in prison.

The court also instructed that the six accused persons out of the 91 that were absent from today’s proceedings be served their charges as well including those released on bail and the minors.

Barrister Okoye told the court that among those absent from court today was an in-existing person mentioned in the list of those being accused of the crime by the state government, a seriously ill person and some minors.

The court further instructed the counsel to the state government to ensure that they also serve the sureties of those released on bail so that they all appear before the court on the given date for hearing in the case to commence.

Other cases for hearing between the Kaduna state government and members of the IMN in which 266 of them are facing trial include, the state versus Aliyu Muhammad and 9 others, coming up on the 19^th of May 2016 before Justice Esther Inuwa and state vesus Muhammad Awwal Yakubu and 80 others before Justoice David Wyoms coming up on the 11^th of May 2016.

Also in addition to the recently adjourned case, there is also another case, the state versus Muhammad Bedde and 30 others coming up before Justice Hannatu Balogun.

The cases, punishable with death penalty have a total of 255 accused members of the IMN out of the 266 facing the charges while the remaining ten are not punishable with death.

Meanwhile, on Monday next week all women and children released on bail are going to be arraigned before court for the same charges punishable by death.

Colleagues rally over continued detention of journalist by KDSG

Abdulmumin Giwa

Some journalists in Kaduna today staged a rally at the Press Center condemning the arrest and remanding in jail of Mr Jacob Dickson a former New Nigeria staff.

Dickson was whisked away by security operatives last week charging him with inciting the public after reporting an incident where the Kaduna state Governor Nasir El-Rufai was said to have been stoned by angry youths at the outskirt of the Badarawa community in Kaduna when he went there to settle a community crisis.

The journalists carried placards with inscriptions like “Journalists are not criminals” and “Free arrested Journalist” written on them as they chanted solidarity songs.

One of the protesters explained that any attempt at clamping down on journalists to stop them from reporting what they see violates the tenets of freedom of speech and subjects the society to chaos.

“There is good and there is bad also there is wrong and there is right and reporting such is what brings about sanity in the society. hence in a situation where the wrongs are barred from being reported then anarchy is promoted as wrong doers are not checked” he lamented.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Kaduna Council of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, comrade Garba Muhammed said that the NUJ is doing all possible to see that he is released and if he is not, the union will take an active step.

“We cannot watch our member arrested and imprisoned for doing his job in the same manner as we cannot allow our members to incite the public” he said.

Youth of IMN protest detention of leader -call for justice on 347 corpses mass buried

By Abdulmumin Giwa

Youths of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria IMN have staged a peaceful protest in Kaduna demanding for immediate and unconditional release of the leader, Sheikh Ibraheem who has been in detention since the Army attacked the headquarters of the Movement in December 2015.

Addressing newsmen today, the chairman of the Kaduna Youth Forum of the Movement, Mika’il Yusuf said “we are reiterating our call for the immediate and unconditional release of our leader from illegal and unjustifiable detention”.

Carrying posters of the leader of the movement with inscription “Free Zakzaky” and pictures of some missing persons, the youths marched from Kano Road to Tudun Wada area of Kaduna metropolis calling for the release of Sheikh Zakzaky.

Yusuf further explained that there is the need for justice and fairness as the movement has declared 780 members missing while the state government has confessed burying 347 victims of the Zaria killing in a mass grave.

He said “we have declared 780 members of the IMN missing with their names and profiles and the Kaduna state government has confessed burying 347 in a mass grave, I think a responsible government will seek to know the whereabouts of the remaining because they are equally Nigerians as anyone else.”

He accused the Kaduna state government of “trying to cover up for the crimes against humanity by unjustly keeping about 200 members of the movement in prison” accusing them of “killing one soldier while the soldiers that have extra-judicially killed 780 are freely walking the streets” he said.

On the Judicial Commission of Inquiry JCI set up by the Kaduna state government to inquire into the Zaria pogrom, the Youth leader said “if they seriously want the IMN to go before the Commission, they should release the leader to lead it o the commission.”

“It is only logical that Malam as the sole victim of the incident be allowed to ,give his ,own side of the story before the commission, at least he was attacked. If they are honest they should release him” he lamented.