BREAKING: ‘Police Opened Fire At Us…Many Of Us Injured,’ Say Protesting Shiites In Abuja

Followers of Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, otherwise known as Shiites, have been dispersed by police during a protest on Wednesday in Abuja.

The Shiites, otherwise known as the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), had trooped put in their numbers to stage yet another protest against the continued detention of the leader by the Nigerian government.

Speaking to THE WHISTLER in a phone interview on Wednesday, one of IMN’s spokespersons, Umaru Abdullahi, said the group was protesting “five years of illegal detention of El-Zakzaky.”

Abdullahi, a graduate of Chemistry from the University of Abuja, said the federal government has continued to detain their leader despite a 2016 court judgment ordering his release from custody of the Department of State Services (DSS).

He regretted that the government had failed to address daily robbery and bandits’ attacks on the Abuja-Kaduna Expressway, but could “deploy up to six trucks of police officers to disperse our peaceful protest.”

The Shiites were said to have gathered around Nicon Junction in Abuja before they were dispersed by the police using teargas.