El-zakzaky laments tight security at Indian hospital, seeks return to Nigeria

The leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) popularly known as Shiite, Ibrahim El-zakzaky, has cried out over what he described as the pathetic and worrisome situation he has been subjected to in an Indian hospital.

El-Zakzaky was granted permission by a Kaduna court to be flown to India for medical attention following alleged gun wounds he and his wife Zinat sustained during a clash with the Army in December 2015.

However, days after arriving at the Medanta Hospital, New Delhi, El-Zakzaky has released an audio clip in Hausa language lamenting the tight security around him in the hospital as well as his safety in the country.

“Some trusted medical doctors that came to diagnose us in Nigeria advised us to come to this hospital. That was why we requested that we should be brought to this hospital,” he said according to Daily Nigerian.

“However, the security situation here is much tighter than where we were in Nigeria. There is a heavy presence of well-armed India police and operatives of the Nigerian Embassy in India around us.

“Nobody is allowed to move an inch without being escorted by these heavily armed people. We then came to the conclusion that we are no longer safe here.”

Besides security, the Shiite leader pointed out that he also had trust issues with the management of the Medanta Hospital, stressing that he wouldn’t allow any doctor he didn’t trust to touch him or his wife.

“The medical officials that advised us to come here are rather helpless. The hospital management said these doctors could only play advisory roles.

“We, therefore, resolved that we won’t allow any doctor we don’t trust to touch us because that was not our earlier agreement.

“We sense that some people are looking for ways to finish up what bullets could not do to us. We believe that based on what we are seeing here, we are not safe here. We are only brought here to further imprison us.

“I had been imprisoned before, but I have never seen this type. I think even Kirikiri prison is not as tight as this place,” the Shiite leader stressed.

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El-zakzaky is seeking a return to Nigeria with a view to consider the next medical line of action to take.

“Honestly, there is a need for us to return back to Nigeria and get other trusted medical attention since the court had given us permission to do so.

“I recall that there were other countries like Malaysia, Indonesia and Turkey that had offered to receive us. We would go and deliberate on which country to go to,” he stated.

Shiites had accused the Federal Government of plotting to kill their leader for refusing him from traveling outside of the country to proper medical attention.

The group held countless protests, especially in Abuja, to demand El-Zakzaky’s release. The protests turned violent (between the Shiites and Police) leading to the proscription of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria as a terrorist organisation by the Nigerian government.