After IPOB Statement, Shiite Slams Saraki For Silence During Zaria Massacre

The Islamic Movement in Nigeria, IMN, has slammed Senate President Bukola Saraki for voicing his opinion on the declaration of the Independent People of Biafra as a terrorist organization by the Nigerian Army.

The group, in a statement by the President of the Media Forum of the Movement, Ibrahim Musa, yesterday, wondered why Saraki, who was silent on the massacre of Shia Muslim minorities in December 2015, could condemn the proscription of the Biafra group.

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The group alleged that the senate president was similarly silent when “El-Rufai proscribed the Islamic Movement in Nigeria,” when a joint force “carried out the extra judicial killing of scores of Shia Muslim minorities in Funtua, Kaduna, Jos and other places in October, 2016”, and when the “police brutally killed over 30 people in November 2016 during the Arba’een trek in Kano”.

The statement called on the United Nations to expel Nigeria from its membership under Article 6 of the United Nations Charter for the genocide against the movement.

The statement read in part, “The UNSC should also be imposing an arms embargo on Nigeria under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter until the Zaria genocide is independently investigated and culprits brought to book.

“These sanctions against Nigeria would honor twin objectives of the United Nations: (1) “to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained;” and, (2) “promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to… religion.

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“In as much as the UN is to be blamed for its silence on Zaria massacre, the silence exhibited by the National assembly in Abuja is even more confounding. Of recent the senate president Bukola Saraki is reported to be decrying the military’s attempt to list IPOB among terrorist groups. We wonder where Saraki was when a worse treatment was visited on Shia Muslim minorities since December 2015 by the Army.

“Where was Saraki when soldiers of the Nigerian Army killed over a thousand people in Zaria between December 12 and 14, 2015? Where was Saraki when El-Rufai proscribed the Islamic Movement in Nigeria and engaged the services of thugs to team up with security agents to clampdown on members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, killing, maiming as well as torching and destroying their properties?

“Where was Saraki when a joint force consisting of the military, police and plain clothes security agents carried out the extra judicial killing of scores of Shia Muslim minorities in Funtua, Kaduna, Jos and other places in October, 2016? Was Saraki not in the country when police brutally killed over 30 people in November 2016 during the Arba’een trek in Kano?

“This and many others make it difficult to resist the conclusion that there is a conspiracy of silence within the international human rights community and the various arms of governance in Nigeria as regards the persecution of members of IMN. Nonetheless this will not deter us in the struggle for justice to the victims of Zaria massacre.

‘We therefore once again reiterate our stand for the immediate and unconditional release of our leader, Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky, his wife, and hundreds of his followers languishing in various jails across the country,” the statement reads.

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