Army silent as Shiites warn FG not to invent violence
• Rights group seeks release of imprisoned cleric
An Islamic leader in the custody of Nigerian authorities might have died. The nation’s capital, Abuja, was tense for the most part of yesterday, while military armoured tanks and heavily armed policemen patrolled the streets of Kaduna in a show of force.
The Guardian reliably learnt the cleric might have passed away yesterday, with the authorities hurriedly putting security measures in place to forestall violence by his supporters and persons sympathetic to his cause.
A meeting of a paramilitary body in Kaduna, yesterday, was swiftly concluded with members warned to stay indoors and not travel back to their states for fear of a possible backlash following the rumoured death.Followers of the embattled cleric have for months called for his release. The authorities, however, appeared to have had other reasons for holding him, despite court orders granting him bail.
The army, allegedly holding the cleric in “protective custody”, was silent on his current fate. Calls and text messages to spokesman, Brigadier General Sani Usman Kukasheka, at 3:18 p.m. and 3:48 p.m., yesterday, to confirm the matter were not replied to before press time.Other security sources contacted for confirmation also kept sealed lips.
A call by The Guardian to the embassy of a notable Arab country with presumed links to the cleric did not yield any result, as the cultural envoy was said to have travelled overseas and was not in a position to comment.The Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), meanwhile, has blamed President Muhammadu Buhari for the development.
Executive Director, Ibuchukwu Ezike, accused Buhari of impunity and disdain for the rule of law since assumption of office.This president may have just created another Boko Haram, Ezike said, adding that the administration’s incarceration of Nigerians without charge and in defiance of court orders is a threat to democracy and national stability.
Insisting the leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) must be released for urgent medical care, the group, yesterday, warned the Federal Government not to use the rumoured death of Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky as pretext to create a crisis.
“Security agents are spreading false information and rumours, with a view to breaking our will and causing confusion, so that they could seize the opportunity to turn our peaceful protests into violence.
