An Islamic group, under the auspices Concerned Abuja Indigenes, has expressed dismay at the continued non-release of the passport of the leader, Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky and his wife, after being acquitted and discharged by the Court.
In the statement signed by Ayedo Danjuma Abdul, the group stressed the need for the immediate release of their travelling documents to enable the couple embark on medical treatment overseas for their health challenges.
According to the group, the gunshot injuries sustained by the cleric and his wife had affected their eye sights and parts of their body still had shrapnel from the Nigerian Army’s attack on their Islamic centre in Zaria on December 12, 2015, which the group said left the house to piles of rubble and ashes, killed three of his children, with the Sheikh and his wife wounded.
It alleged that the gesture would dissuade his sympathisers from embarking on fresh street protests in Abuja.
The statement explained, “We urge the federal government to release Sheikh El-Zakzaky’s passport along with his wife’s to enable them travel to the hospital of their choice to avoid the return to the street protests by his supporters which turned Abuja from the city it used to be to a seemingly battleground.”
The statement observed that as a result of the police brutality against the free El-Zakzaky protesters, many businesses were disrupted, and lives lost on numerous occasions, including two journalists, a police officer, many protesters, and even some of our members.
