Re: Nigerian govt re-arraigns El- Zakzaky’s chief security officer, two others
My attention was drawn to the above News report that appeared in the Premium Times News website and I saw lots of mischievous and malicious insinuations by the Buhari-led government. I took a decision to write a rejoinder to debunk the lies and straighten record.
Excerpt from the Premium Times report stated: “The Federal Government on Monday re-arraigned Haruna Abbas, the chief security officer to Ibraheem El-Zakzaky and two others, before Justice Anwuli Chikere of the Federal High Court Abuja. The defendants were arraigned on an amended eight-count criminal charge for allegedly supporting terrorism between 2009 and 2013, by sending people for terrorist training in Iran.”
One of the defendants, Haruna Abbas, is my friend and not only did we share the same name but we know each other for close to 30 years due to our membership in the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) under the leadership of His Eminence Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky. I correctly know that Haruna Abbas was arrested during the government of former President GoodLuck Jonathan on 15 March, 2013 when he returned from a visit to Lebanon and he was arrested at the Malam Amin Kano International Airport (MAKIA) by the Nigerian secret police (DSS). Ibrahim Husain was arrested on 1/04/2013 and Adamu Suleiman was arrested on 18/06/2014. This means that all the three defendants were arrested during the government of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
The report in the Premium Times that they were arrested after the brutal and inhuman #ZariaMassacre by the Nigerian Army that was ordered by President Buhari is not correct. The Premium Times report stated: “The three persons being prosecuted are among scores of members of the Shiite Islamic Movement of Nigeria, IMN, who were arrested after the December 2015 attack that saw soldiers kill over 300 Shiites.”
The following part of the report further nullify the claim that they were arrested after the inhuman massacre in Zaria as November 5, 2014 was before the government of President Buhari. “At the commencement of the hearing, the prosecuting counsel, Chike Nnenna, informed the court that the matter was starting afresh, as the charge was dated November 5, 2014.”
The present move by the Nigerian government is another desperate attempt by those who murdered 1000+ innocent Nigerians in Zaria in December, 2015, and dumped the dead bodies of the victims in mass graves at night to justify that inhuman massacre. When they slaughtered those Shiites they insinuated to Nigerians that the Shiites were “armed” but to this day they failed to present a single bullet to Nigerians as “weapon” recovered from the slaughtered Shiites. Today all Nigerians are convinced that President Buhari sent the Nigerian army to massacre innocent, unarmed and defenseless Nigerians and wickedly dumped the dead bodies of the victims in mass graves to bury the evidences.
This is the first time the Nigerian government is associating the peaceful IMN with the word “terriorism”. The 3 defendants where charged with “allegedly supporting terrorism between 2009 and 2013, by sending people for terrorist training in Iran.” The years between 2009 to 2017 is eight (8) years and if people were sent on training in 2009 then why is it that to date there is no single terrorist attack associated to IMN? Is it possible for trained terrorists to spend 8 years without organizing terrorist attacks? And when the Nigerian army was busy murdering and bombing innocent Nigerians in Zaria why was it there was no opposition from the trained “terrorists”?
The Nigerian government claimed the “terrorists” were trained in Iran but it was Iran that trained Hezbollah to defeat the mighty Israeli army in 2006. If the Nigerian army goes against the Israeli army in any conflict it be a walkover as the Israelis will crush the Nigerian army. Maybe the hundreds of Shiites women, girls and children that were murdered and burnt alive by the Nigerian Army in the residence of Sheikh Zakzaky were the “trained terrorists” from Iran.
The truth of this whole issue is that President Buhari and his bloodthirsty gang of mass murderers slaughtered 1000+ innocent Nigerians to serve an evil imperialist agenda that has the Savage Saudi regime as a front and after they slaughtered these innocent Nigerians they dumped their dead bodies in mass graves at night to bury the evidences. Fabricating and concocting fraudulent charges of “terrorism” against innocent members of IMN by the Buhari regime will never erase the monumental savagery and brutal inhumanity of the Zaria massacre. IMN strongly condemned all forms of inhuman terrorism as it was victim of the #BokoHaram terrorism and state-sponsored terrorism in the past and on many occasion.
On a final note, Nigerians should remain assured that despite all genocidal massacres and unprovoked killings by the Nigerian government against peaceful members of IMN, IMN will remain peaceful in all its programs and activities.
Harun Elbinawi
[email protected]
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