*WHERE IS THE GOVERNMENT HIDING SHEIKH ZAKZAKY?*


It is public knowledge that on Tuesday 15/05/08, our Leader Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky and his wife Malama Zeenah Ibrahim were brought to a Kaduna high court by force from where they have been detained for over two and half years on the instance of Kaduna state government. They were charged with spurious charges that included the murder of one soldier. Even though all roads leading to the court were cordoned off during the court case, the few people within the premises of the court and the Lawyers of Sheikh Zakzaky saw him alighting from the car that brought him to court, they also saw him leaving the court premises after the case in the same car. Pictures of his arrival to the court were also shared on various social media platforms.


What is disheartening is the fact that since when our Leader and his wife left court on Tuesday to date nothing has been heard of them. Here is what his only surviving son said in one of the social media platforms: “It is now more than 30 hours since I last heard anything of my parents.”


This unfortunate step taken by the federal government denying those who have the right to know of Sheikh Zakzaky’s whereabouts is alien to the rule of law in this country. It is a universal law that at least the family of any accuse before a court have the right to know where he is detained, likewise his lawyers, that is if at all the society is a sane one where nobody is above the law. Why then is the right of members of the Islamic Movement a.k.a Shiites cheaply trampled upon by this government, behaving as if we are not citizens of this country?


It is high time that the peace-loving people of Nigeria remind this government that has been oppressing the Islamic Movement as if there is no tomorrow that this latest step of putting the Islamic community in the dark as to the whereabouts of Sheikh Zakzaky is not going to be taken lightly. If the government will be behaving contemptuously to valid court orders and other relevant law, whom does it expect to be law abiding in the country? Is this not an open invitation to anarchy in the land?


Let us remind the public briefly about the gross injustice this Buhari regime meted upon us since December, 2015. In the first place, Sheikh Zakzaky was not approached for arrest, sounds of gunfire from the invading soldiers were all that he heard approaching his residence on 12 December, 2015. He wasn’t reached until over a thousand souls were brutally killed, his three teenage children were killed by gunfire, his senior sister and other followers were burnt alive, his house and centres of worship were reduced to rubble, he himself and his wife were seriously wounded with gunshots. Had it not be for the providence of Allah, they would have been martyred then. He went to court and obtained a judgment freeing him from detention, but the federal authorities treated the order with disdain. And now after two and half years this same government is coming up with sundry charges against him in another court! What tyranny!   


We will like the public to remind those in the corridors of power the wise sayings of the wise men of old that ‘no any administration that feeds on injustice will last long.’ Indeed with this worst kind of oppression against us, the reins of power will slip from our oppressors soon! We hereby reiterate our demand that Sheikh Zakaky, his wife and others in detention illegally should be unconditionally release. This is the only way out of this quagmire. We believe Allah is ever watchful!


SIGNED BY

SHEIKH ABDULHAMID BELLO ZARIA

18/05/18

Eating Watery Beans