Police has dispersed followers of controversial Islamic Cleric, El Zakzaky from the streets in Abuja, following violent protests that rocked the city in the early hours of Monday.
The protests which started from the Unity Fountain in Abuja, created tension in the Federal Capital city as the protesters were seen moving in their large numbers, chanting war songs and calling for the release of their leader, Sheik El- Zakzaky, a situation that caused tension and disrupted traffic flows especially in Maitama and its environs.
The group also known as ‘ Shiites’ were seen confronting heavily armed anti- riot Mobile Police men who were parading the city.
The Police later dispersed the protesters with armored tanks, anti-riot hot water dispensers, tear gas canisters and trained Police Dogs.
The group had since 2016 embarked on similar protest across Nigeria and especially within Abuja following the arrest and detention of Sheikh El-Zazaki after the December, 2016 bloody clash with Nigerian Army in Zaria, Kaduna State.
When contacted on phone, the FCT Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, DSP Jesse Manzah, said the Police was monitoring the situation and will issue an official statement on the crises.
”Please give us some time, we are closely monitoring the situation and will issue an official statement very soon.”
Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) leader Ibrahim Zakzaky has been jailed since December 2015, when security forces killed hundreds of members in a crackdown on a group estimated to have 3 million followers.
The violent repression of the group and the detention of its leader have drawn accusations that President Muhammadu Buhari’s government is abusing human rights.
The IMN says Zakzaky must be freed after a court ruled his detention without charge illegal.
The crackdown has sparked fears that IMN could become radicalised, in much the same way the Sunni Muslim militant group Boko Haram turned into a violent insurgency in 2009 after police killed its leader.
“As we started protesting they started shooting tear gas and using water cannons,” Abdullahi Muhammad, an IMN youth leader, said. “We refused to disperse and they used bullets as well, and they shot so many people.”
“They want to push us to violence but they couldn’t, so that is why they are using live ammunition, thinking that killing will stop us. No amount of killing will stop us,” he added.
Muhammad said he witnessed police dragging bullet-hit protesters into a van and sitting on them, adding that he did not know if they were dead or alive.
At least eight other IMN members were hit by bullets and were now receiving treatment, said Muhammad. An IMN spokesman, who was also at the protests, said at least four people were injured.
Nearly all of the Muslims that make up around half of Nigeria’s population are Sunnis. The IMN was founded in the 1980s after the revolution in mainly Shi’ite Iran in 1979, which inspired the group’s founders.
A judicial inquiry after the Dec. 2015 clashes concluded that the military had killed 347 IMN members in Zakzaky’s home base, the city of Zaria. Soldiers buried the bodies in mass graves. The group calls the incident “the Zaria massacre”.
Videos uploaded on social media showed wreaths of the gas enveloping Abuja’s streets in the Maitama district, near the landmark Transcorp Hilton hotel. Other videos showed protesters pelting an armoured police vehicle with rocks before it sped away, and people fleeing the area.
STELLA ENENCHE, Abuja
