The police have warned members of the public to stay away from the scenes of violent clashes between the security agencies and members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria IMN popularly called Shiites, who are again staging another round of protest in Abuja on Monday to demand the release of their detained leader, Ibrahim El-Zak Zaky.
The police gave this warning in a statement issued by the Force Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba, after the sect members trooped out in their numbers for the protest as they engaged the security agencies in sporadic shootings around the busy Federal Secretariat and other parts of Abuja. An ambulance belonging to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) at the Secretariat was allegedly set ablaze by the sect members.
They were protesting the continued detention of their leader, Ibrahim El-Zak Zaky, who has been held in detention by the government since 2015.
“There is a violent protest currently ongoing by members of the El-Zakzakky Group in some parts of the FCT – particularly the Central Business District and the Three Arms Zone. The Police are taking adequate measures to bring the situation under control,” the Police warned in the statement.
“Citizens are advised to remain calm and avoid the affected areas in the interim. The Police will keep the public abreast with further development,” the statement said.
Monday’s clash with the security was one of the series of clashes between members of the sect and security agencies, with the most recent being the attempt by the sect members to invade the National Assembly two weeks ago, where they allegedly shot and inflicted injuries on some security agents.
The Inspector-General of Police, IGP, Mohammed Adamu, last week issued an order restricting all forms of protests to the popular Unity Fountain, but it appeared the sect had defied that order by extending their protests to other parts of the capital city.
The Movement on Sunday called on the public to disregard a recent statement made by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, claiming that the fate of its leader, Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky, lay with the courts and not the federal government.
This was contained in a statement signed by Media Forum of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, Ibrahim Musa, and made available to Media in Kaduna.
The sect had said in the statement that the presidency was hypocritical on the issue, stressing that it is on record that since December, 2016 a federal high court sitting in Abuja, presided by Justice Kolawole had freed Sheikh Zakzaky and restored his fundamental human rights, but noted that the government has contemptuously refused to obey that court order.
The statement noted that the “in December 2016 the Federal High Court in Abuja has freed Sheikh Zakzaky from the illegal detention, ordered that he, along with his wife, be compensated to the tune of N50m, a house be provided for him in any part of the country he desires and security be provided for his protection.
It also said: “The Buhari government deliberately acted in contempt of court and refused to respect the judiciary. So which court is the presidency talking about that will decide the fate of our leader?” according to the statement by the Islamic Movement.
“It further declared that the fresh court case instituted by Kaduna state government as a mischievous plot to keep its leader in perpetual detention.
“That the government mischievously concocted a new case in Kaduna, three years after the Zaria massacre, accusing the leader of the movement whose wife was shot, three children were killed, elder sister and nephew were burned alive and he was also shot severally, of abetting homicide.
“This was followed by a case in which over 100 members of the movement were freed by the High Court in Kaduna with a ‘No Case Submission’ implying that the case was a mischief of keeping the revered leader in illegal detention.
