Charlie Boy, Concerned Nigerians demand cleric's release

Leader of the "Our Mumu Don Do" group, Charles Oputa, popularly called Charly Boy, joined the Concerned Nigerians group in Abuja on Wednesday, January 17, 2018, to protest against the incarceration of the leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), Ibrahim El-Zakzaky.

The group of protesters joined Shiite members who have been protesting for the release of their cleric who has been held by the Department of State Services (DSS) for two years.

The sit-out protest took place at Unity Fountain in Abuja where leader of Concerned Nigerians, Deji Adeyanju, said the government has unfairly targeted the group for harassment.

Speaking in Pidgin English, Charly Boy remarked that the current state of the country is sad because there's a systemic failure that cannot be sustained.

"Make them know say all of us na Nigerians. What is happening in Nigeria today is not fair. This kind of systemic failure cannot even be sustained by the people who have created it. I have never seen the kind of ethnic hatred that I have seen in this present regime.

"We can be called a shithole because we have animals in human clothing. My demand is simple, they should release the man," he said.

52 IMN members were arrested by the Abuja Police Command on January 10, 2018, after staging a protest that reportedly got out of hand.

The command alleged that the protesters attacked citizens and police operatives with some bottles of improvised petrol-bomb, stones and catapult during the protest.

El-Zakzaky's imprisonment

El-Zakzaky has been in custody for two years after the Nigerian Army raided his residence in Zaria and killed hundreds of his followers, including three of his sons, in December 2015.

This was a direct consequence of his followers' clash with the convoy of the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant-General Tukur Buratai.

Despite the court order of Justice Gabriel Kolawole calling for his release on December 2, 2016, after he ruled that the government's justification of "holding him for his own protection" is insufficient, the cleric remains in government custody with his wife.

After rumours of his death intensified protests last week, the DSS allowed him to speak to the media on January 13, his first public appearance since his incarceration.