I was shocked to see this headlines from the website of a Nigerian
daily Newspaper “Leadership” that was a quote from the legal Counsel
to the Nigerian secret police (DSS) that have been holding the
Nigerian Islamic scholar Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky in detention for more
than 6 months now without charge of any offense.
If I may humbly ask all:Is it possible that a sane person is “happy
and comfortable with his detention”?
The Nigerian regime under President Buhari sent thousands of
heavily-armed soldiers to 4 sites of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria
(IMN) on the 12th-14th December, 2015 and one of those sites was the
residence of Sheikh Zakzaky. The soldiers killed 100s of defenseless
and unarmed Nigerians that included women and children, burnt down the
residence of Sheikh Zakzaky with him and his family inside the house.
He survived by a miracle then the soldiers returned and discovered 12
of them survived the massacre, the soldiers on sighting them open fire
on them and brutally executed his 3 sons in his presence then
proceeded to rain bullets on him and his wife. The soldiers then went
further to parade the wounded Sheikh Zakzaky, a man that has millions
of followers within and outside Nigeria, in a wheelbarrow in the most
savage and barbaric manner. The same Nigerian regime that sent those
soldiers to commit these heinous crimes and atrocities is today
telling us that “El-Zakzaky is happy and comfortable with his
detention”. Wonders they said shall never end!
Excerpt from the Leadership news report stated “The Department of
State Security Service (DSS), Nigerian secret police, says the leader
of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, is being
detained at his own will.
The DSS is making the statement in defence of accusations by the
council to the leader of the Shiites that his rights were being
violated. Counsel to the DSS, Mr Tijani Gazali, told reporters on
Tuesday that the Shiite leader was held by security operatives at his
own will and for his benefits.”
Mr Gazali added: “He needs not give his consent because it is the duty
of the DSS to protect every Nigerian especially one who is as
vulnerable as the Shiite leader is at the moment”.
But in his defence, counsel to El-Zakzaky, Mr Festus Okoye, said he
had not received any statement from his client that would corroborate
the claims of the DSS. He also accused the DSS of breaching the
fundamental human rights of his client.
“The hearing on the suit filed by the Shiite leader challenging his
arrest and continued detention could not commence following the fresh
issues raised by the DSS that he had been held under protective
custody and not detention.” My excerpt of the news report ends here.
Now the Nigerian regime of President Buhari is claiming that they are
holding Sheikh Zakzaky “under protective custody”, then lets ask “what
is protective custody?” The Legal-Dictionary website defined
“protective custody” as:
“The act of law enforcement officials in placing a person in a
government facility or foster home in order to protect him/her from a
dangerous person or situation. Most commonly a child who has been
neglected or battered or is in danger from a violent person, is taken
in as a temporary ward of the state and held in probation facilities
or placed in a foster home until a court can decide the future
placement of the child. Protective custody is sometimes used to help
women threatened by a husband, boyfriend or a stalker, and also for
witnesses who have been threatened with physical harm or death they
testify.”
Now the analysis of the definition of “protective custody”. If Sheikh
Ibraheem Zakzaky and his wife, Zeenat Ibraheem, were placed in a
government facility as claimed by the Nigerian regime to “protect them
from dangerous people or situation” then who are those dangerous
people that the Nigerian secret police is so “kind and generous” to
protect them from? The answer is obviously the Nigerian army who
attacked their house, killed 100s of his followers, burnt the house
with all his belongings that included his enviable Library and all the
belongings of his family and extra judicially murdered his 3 sons in
his presence. But the fact remained that both the Nigerian army and
the Department of State Security Service (DSS) are all agencies of the
Federal Government of Nigeria that are directly under President
Buhari. It is important to not that All the personnel of both agencies
are paid by the Federal Government and the Nigerian President is
constitutionally responsible for the appointment of the heads of both
agencies and they directly receive orders from him.
If we can remember immediately after the inhuman Zaria massacre when
the Iranian-based news channel, PressTV, interviewed the GOC of 1
mechanized battalion of the Nigerian army that is based in Kaduna on
the fate of Sheikh Zakzaky and his wife, he said:”they are alive & in
a protective custody, we didn’t arrest them but we rescue them.” The
grand deception by the Nigerian regime of “protective custody” started
from here.
To simplify the unfolding scenario to the truth seeking mind,
President Buhari sent the Nigerian army to attack the residence of
Sheikh Zakzaky – all orders of troop movement comes from the President
as he is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces – then the same
President Buhari now uses another agency, the DSS, to detain Sheikh
Zakzaky and his wife without trial or been charge to court for 6
months. Then the same President Buhari is now telling Nigerians and
the world that “El-Zakzaky is happy and comfortable with his
detention!”. The honored friend, please is President Buhari not an
evil genius?
Who is the Nigeria regime and President Buhari trying to deceive, the
conscious Nigerians or the alerted world or both? How can President
Buhari hold a person he almost killed and infact killed his 3 sons in
detention “at his will and for his benefit”? Why will Sheikh Zakzaky
wish to be detained by the regime that murdered 1000+ of his followers
in less than 48 hours that included his 3 sons and almost killed him
and his wife? What benefit have Sheikh Zakzaky and his wife gained by
been in detention for 6 months with 3 of those months incommunicado by
the same Nigerian regime that attacked his residence? And which Muslim
wish to fast the entire holy month of Ramadhan under the detention of
a secret police?
On a last note, President Buhari is chasing shadows and suffers from
self-deception and mental ineptitude if he thinks he can deceive the
world by burying the gruesome murder of 1000+ defenseless and unarmed
Nigerians and dumped their dead bodies in mass Graves. The world in
2016 is not the same as the world of 1967-70 when the then capt Buhari
was alleged to have massacred Biafran women and children and got away
with it. Today, the world is a global village due to the exponential
progress in communication technology and the means of deliverance. The
world is watching, the inhuman Zaria massacre can not be buried by
anybody as undoubtedly monumental war crimes were committed against
defenseless civilians.
Harun Elbinawy is the official of the #FREEZAKZAKY CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE#
He writes from Zaria Kaduna state
