Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, the leader of the Shiite Movement in Nigeria, has been accused of running a parallel government for over 20 years in Zaria, Kaduna state.
Residents of Zaria have reportedly called on the federal government asking to ban the Zakzaky-led Islamic movement from their communities as he brought untold hardship on them for over 20 years.
According to Idris Mohammed Baba, the spokesperson of the affected Zaria communities, who spoke at a press conference yesterday in Kaduna, members of the Shiite sect had held people in Zaria and Sabon Gari local government areas of the state hostage with impunity while they ran the parallel government in the country.
Moreover, Baba claimed that in May 2015, the Shiites had declared 24 youths persona non grata for challenging their activities in Gyellesu community where Zakzaky resides.
“My experience with Shiite followers is disastrous and terrible. At a point, Shiite boys threatened to kill me. There is one notorious Shiite boy call Ali, he is the leader of El-Zakzaky’s notorious boys who accompany him anywhere he goes,”Baba said.
The spokesperson further admitted that members of the community were happy with the way the Shiite movement in Zaria was handled by the military about a fortnight ago as “we have fresh air now blowing in our areas.”
“Before, we couldn’t grant an interview to the world about the Shiite activities but now, we are sleeping with our two eyes closed. As a community, we wrote letters to the governments about the ungodly activities of the Shiites but no single action was taken. We no longer report Shiites to the police because they will never honour police or security invitation.
“These Shiites are authority unto themselves; they don’t respect authority, security and so on. We are Muslims but we discovered that Shiites activities are contrary to Islam. They carry dangerous weapons openly molesting innocent people in our areas. Human rights bodies should also look into our pains by Shiite sect,”he stated.
Alhaji Saidu Garba, one of the Gyallesu elders, added that the once booming economic activities in the area had been crippled due to the activities of members of the Shiite sect in the area.
“After El-Zakzaky was released from detention in 1999, he came and settled in Gyallesu and since then, there is no peace in our area. We thank Allah for touching the heart of government and the military for liberating us from Shiites untold hardship,” Garba stated.
“Shiites killed many of our people who challenged their activities, we buried them and we couldn’t talk to the world because of their threat. We were living like slaves in our own land where the Shiite leader, Sheikh El-Zakzaky came and met us. We residents of Gyallesu are calling on the Federal government to ban Shiite movement in our community and Kaduna state as a whole. Government should put a stop to the Shiite’s ungodly activities in our area,” the Gyallesu elder said.