@ElRufai Sponsored Article In DailyTrust Claims Zakzaky Not Wanted In Gyellesu

Recently, a judge of a Federal High Court, Justice Gabriel Kolawole, directed the federal government to release Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky. What is your reaction to that?

I want to say categorically that we don’t want him back in Gyellesu. Since he is a citizen of Nigeria, he has the right to live wherever he wants to live, but the people of Gyellesu don’t want him here. Every resident of Gyellesu does not want him back because of what we went through in the hands of Shiites. Zakzaky should return to his birth place, Kwarbai in Zaria city or Justice Kolawole should give him a place in his hometown.  When he came here in December 1998, after the General Abdulsalami Abubakar administration released him from detention, many residents were disturbed. He came with his followers and they were abusing just about everybody, including the government. Mobile policemen came and started shooting tear gas in our area.

That was on the first day. Afterwards, his members started becoming unruly and hostile to members of the community. We started seeing some strange faces and from their looks, some of them are not Nigerians. With time, they started assembling in front of people’s houses at night and they become hostile when the residents or tenants asked for right of way into their homes. We reported all these to the District Head, the police and every constituted authority. It reached a stage where when we report to the police, they would tell us to be patient or we should report to where we think we could get justice.

What about the claim by the IMN that the coming of Sheikh Zakzaky to Gyellesu had made the area the centre of peace?

This is not correct. Everyone that knows Gyellesu would agree that its population is an ethnic-mix of Nigerian tribes. It is the host community of the Federal College of Education and the Institute of Administration of the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria. Most of the staff and students of these institutions reside here. So, you would find people of different tribes and countries. So, we have always been peaceful. But when Zakzaky came, the community so much changed that many people relocated from it.  As secretary of Gyellesu Community Vigilante Group, Zakzaky’s people have always harassed us each time we apprehended a criminal and handed him over to the police. In fact, they asked us not to go near Zakzaky’s house during our night patrols and we agreed. No uniformed personnel could enter Gyellesu when Zakzaky was holding forth in the last 16 years.

The IMN always claimed that they took those stringent measures to protect their leader, particularly after his sons were allegedly killed.

This is part of their propaganda. We wrote a letter of complaint to the Village and Ward Heads and the Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of Zaria, telling them of these stringent measures. We wrote the letter in May 2013, which was before his children were killed. That was one of the recent letters. We have written several of them, complaining about their conduct. There was a time when former Governor Mukhtar Ramalan Yero came to greet a sick person. He was barred from entering Gyellesu. His security agents threatened them with arms but the governor restrained them. A Shiite member drew out a gun. They said the governor trekked to the house of the sick person and he did just that. The Shiite who was arrested for bringing out a gun was later released. Nothing was done against the Shiites after the incident. Zakzaky was not questioned and none of his members was arrested. That was when we knew that these people were truly above the law.

Your seem to suggest that the Shiites were only having problems with prominent members of the society, not everyone.

I just mentioned prominent people that were harassed. We, the masses, were harassed constantly. There was a roadblock behind Zakzaky’s former house, in front of Liman Malam Shittu’s house. The roadblock was at a corner just by Alhaji Abubakar’s house. It used to inconvenience vehicle owners and pedestrians. Alhaji Abubakar’s children and his friends decided to move the road block forward in order to ease movement, this caused a major crisis. Zakzaky’s members compiled their names and followed them house-to-house and attacked them.

There was a particular house where they didn’t meet the young man that they went for. Instead of leaving, they destroyed everything-furniture, electronics and all. Due to these attacks, three old people died, including Alhaji Halliru, Hajiya Yalwa who was Zakzaky’s neighbour and Isiaku Bala. The wife of Sheikh Abdulmummini who was pregnant had a miscarriage when Zakzaky’s followers descended on her parents’ house. She also died afterwards. In addition to these, they wounded 30 people. We reported the incident to the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) who said the case was beyond him and referred us to the Area Commander. Nothing was done and that was how the matter died.

There were insinuations that members of the IMN used to impose curfew on Gyellesu, how true is that?

Yes, they imposed curfew on us when his children were killed before December 2015. They said there should be no movement in and out of Gyellesu as from 9pm. They used to subject us to search, especially at night. In fact, they removed every security light and always hid in the shadows.  Gyellesu has gates which we installed in order to curb incessant car theft. They used to padlock the gates and once they were locked, they would not be open under any circumstance, even if there was an emergency.

There were instances when women who were in labour died by the gate, just as their relatives were pleading with Zakzaky’s guards to open it. Some were fortunate to give birth in the car. The wives of one man that we use to call Baba Adinni were the ones who helped one of the victims in child delivery. But our youths dismantled these gates when they humiliated former Governor Yero.  Whenever Zakzaky was going out of his house, all the areas from Gyellesu to the Polo ground were always inconvenienced. His Hussainiyya was by the Polo ground and one hour before he left his residence to the place, his bodyguards would block every junction on the way. Anyone, whether on foot or bicycle, must wait until Zakzaky passed. And when he was on the road, you dared not come close or overtake his convoy. Everyone who passed that road from Gyellesu to Hussainiyya, from Bakin Kasuwan in Tudun Wada to PZ had a story of woe to tell.

Whenever Zakzaky encountered a traffic jam along Ahmed Makarfi Way, the road leading up to Hussainiyya, he would just cross over and follow the other lane. These are some of our problems with Shiites, hence our stand not to welcome Zakzaky back to our community.