I received this reply from Chief Raymond Dokpesi, the founder of the African Independent Television (AIT), A Nigerian – based media outfit. He wrote as a rejoinder to me piece “RE: Campaign Against Shiite Extremism Launched In Lagos”
I have just seen an article written by you where you were responding to Nigerians United Against Terrorism. Specifically you stated that “The fact that it was African Independent Television (AIT), a privately-owned media outfit that is notorious in sponsoring smear campaigns, that broadcasted the launch shows that it was sponsored.”
Dear Mr Elbinawi I happen to be the founder of AIT though I am now a pensioner.Can you please advise me on the smear campaigns that AIT has notoriously sponsored? Are you sure of your facts? Has this same AIT not given your sect the opportunity to state your own side of the story at various times? When the Zaria killings took place recently did AIT not report all the sides to enable the Nigerian public understand the issues & challenges? Did you mean that the news item/event was sponsored by AIT? Please educate me.
Below is my reply to Chief Raymond Dokpesi:
“Conscience is an open wound, only Truth can heal it.” -Sheikh Uthman Ibn Fodio ( ra )
Dear Chief,
I received your reply to my piece “RE: Campaign Against Shiite Extremism Launched In Lagos” where I mentioned the leading role that your AIT is playing in the ongoing smear campaign of calumny and demonization against the peaceful Islamic Movement of Nigeria ( IMN ) and Shia Islam in #Nigeria.
It is common knowledge to all Nigerians the notorious role that AIT played in the last elections where it led smear campaigns against some leading personalities of the then APC opposition party that was unprecedented in the history of Nigeria. Unfortunately for AIT the opposition APC won the Presidential election and the rest is history.
With all due respect to you as an African Chief and an elder of your Church, your claim that AIT gave IMN the opportunity to state it’s case after the brutal massacre that killed 1000+ defenseless & unarmed Nigerians in Zaria is not true.
For your information after the Zaria massacre one of the staffs of AIT arranged a program at Abuja AIT _KAKAKI program where a member of IMN was invited and a political platform program for some few minutes at your Radio Ray Power on the same day. This is only what AIT did and cannot be compared to the countless hours that AIT gave the Nigerian Army to state it’s lies on the Zaria massacre to the Nigerian public.
After this AIT has been notorious on the smear campaigns against IMN & Shia Islam in Nigeria. The exact opposite can be said of the Channels TV which is also an independent TV network in Nigeria just like the AIT. Channels TV has given IMN adequate opportunity to state it’s case to Nigerians, they interviewed IMN leaders, they interviewed IMN lawyers and all their reports on the Zaria massacre were balanced and objective.
Dear Chief, we know that you have a pending 2.1 billion Naira corruption case in a Nigerian court and the Nigerian government that executed the brutal Zaria massacre might be using that to blackmail you into furthering their evil agenda against IMN & Shia Islam in Nigeria. We also know that AIT is currently having financial problems and AIT have find it difficult to meet its financial obligations including unable to pay its staff salaries. The attraction to Saudi petro-dollars that funded the brutal slaughter of 1000+ defenseless Nigerians in Zaria is a possibility. And it is common knowledge in Nigeria that AIT is the most pro-#Israeli media outfit in Nigeria and we have credible information of AIT past close collaboration with the Israeli Embassy in Nigeria.
Dear Chief, in today’s international relations and diplomacy the Saudi and Israeli regimes had formed a close alliance against Iran and Shia Islam. With the ongoing smear campaigns by AIT against IMN & Shia Islam in Nigeria, is the AIT the media arm of the Saudi – Israeli alliance agenda in Nigeria?
The most recent AIT – sponsored smear campaigns against IMN & Shia Islam in Nigeria is wicked, evil and the peak of cruelty that must be condemned by all people of conscience. That is the evil agenda of trying to link the peaceful IMN and the murderous Boko Haram insurgency. For your information #BokoHaram is the most deadliest terrorist group in the whole world and to link such a murderous terrorist outfit with IMN that has been peaceful for more than 37 years is malicious, wicked and product of the most evil minds.
BokoHaram had killed more than 30,000 innocent Nigerians, it has killed 1000s in Chad, Niger and Cameroon. The BokoHaram insurgency has displaced more than 2 million Nigerians from their homes and has abducted 1000s of Nigerian women and girls as sex-slaves. How can your AIT linked such monumental evil to IMN and Shia Islam? Chief Raymond Dokpesi what have we done to you and your AIT to deserve such gross injustice against us?
Dear Chief, for your information the teachings of Shia Islam have its roots from the pure teachings and guidance of the pure Households of our Prophet Muhammad ( sa ). It is impossible in such a school of thought to produce a Abubakar Shekau, a Osama bin Laden, a Abubakar al Baghdadi, a Muhammad Buhari, a Tukur Burutai or a Nasir Elrufai. It is impossible to produce bloodthirsty savages who mercilessly kill the innocent to further an evil agenda.
The brutal Zaria Massacre by the Nigerian Army was undoubtedly a war crime, all the crimes and atrocities that you know BokoHaram has committed, the Nigerian Army committed more in the brutal slaughter of defenseless Nigerians in Zaria. In the Zaria massacre the Nigerian Army burnt Nigerians alive in the residence of Sheikh Zakzaky, they raped the sisters of IMN then killed them but one of them survived after she was raped and shot multiple times. The Nigerian Army shot sisters of IMN in their private parts & stabbed them in their breasts with rifle bayonets. I have never heard of BokoHaram thugs committed such crime but the Nigerian Army committed that heinous crime against innocent Nigerian women.
Dear Chief, finally I will like to address your conscience as first a human then a practicing Christian and a Nigerian. Do you think that the ongoing smear campaign against IMN & Shia Islam in Nigeria by the AIT that you founded is righteous and just? I end this piece, warm regards to your family!
Thank you!
#FreeZakzaky
#GodProtectZakzaky
Harun Elbinawi
elbinawi@yahoo.com
Elbinawi.wordpress.com