Group accuses Kaduna govt of masterminding attacks against its members

Members of the sect have been protesting the continued detention of their leader, Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky.

Recently, the Katsina state government banned all forms of processions, following a clash that occurred between members of the Shiite sect and police in Funtua.

The group also slammed the Kaduna state Governor, Nasir Elrufai for allegedly treating its members anyhow.

They alleged that the Kaduna state government’s unfriendly body language towards them gave rise to the violent attacks against them.

According to the sect’s spokesman, Ibrahim Musa, “How then can el-Rufai now shed crocodile tears having incited violence on a people through his hate posture and actions against such people?

“They read the body language of the government in their favour and acted based on that, and with full support of all the instruments of governance over which he presides,” the statement read.

“What happened in the wake of our peaceful Ashura mourning procession was a carefully planned plot, meticulously executed with all machinery of government.

“The government had all along tried to give their brutal clampdown on Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) members a semblance of an altercation between IMN and the masses.

“Kaduna state governor, Nasir el-Rufai alluded to this right from the outset of the attacks in December, 2015 in his infamous state-wide broadcast. His utterances and body language since then left no one in doubt of his disdain for IMN members.

“Using all the tools of governance at his disposal, in private and openly, often in total disregard to reason, sanity or law, he exhibited extreme hate for IMN. As a fore-runner to the latest brutality, he issued an executive order banning us from exercising our rights to practice our religion with a threat to jail anyone who does up to seven years in his jail.

“We have it on record how certain individuals and hate preachers took to the media and the podium respectively calling on the masses to join the government of el-Rufai in what they termed an ‘all-out war on Shia.

“The government and el-Rufai has neither refuted that nor called the perpetrators to order or better still arrested and punished the culprits, since they are well-known and the actions were done in broad daylight. Simply put, el-Rufai is very much culpable.

“We wish to remind the public that incitement to murder a vulnerable population can be so subtle. People read body languages, take cues, pick up signals and act accordingly. Other governors have quickly taken cue from him.”

On Wednesday, October 12, 2016, angry youths in Kaduna State burnt down the home of a leader of the Shiite Islamic sect, Mukhtar Sahabi.

According to reports, the act was condemned by Governor El-Rufai, who said everyone involved should be brought to book.