Alwaght- The Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) has warned that the government in Abuja plans to continue detaining the movement's leader, Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky, and his wife Zeenah until they die.
"Are the tyrants holding the brave sheikh captive waiting for time to kill him since Allah has rescued him from their attempt to kill him using their military might?" said IMN spokesman S.I. Ahmad on Wednesday.
"Sheikh Zakzaky has been shot at close range for him to die, but Allah wishes to see him alive from the barbaric December attack. He has been denied proper medical care, but he is still living," Ahmad added.
Ahmad added that the sheikh is still suffering bullet wounds inflected on him while he was first detained and the after-effects of a recent stroke. He noted that Zeenah is also ill and needs medical attention.
The remarks were made at the end of a protest rally held in Abuja with a large number of demonstrators calling for Sheikh Zakzaky's release.
The group vowed not to stop the protests until Sheikh Zakzaky is released from illegal detention and until justice is done for the 2015 Zaria victims.
On January 13, Zakzaky, at the time rumored to have died in detention, made his first public appearance since he was illegally detained by security forces in 2015.
Despite the ruling of a Federal High Court, which ordered his unconditional release in 2016, Sheikh Zakzaky and his wife have remained in detention since December 2015.
Tensions between the Nigerian government and Islamic Movement members, mostly Shiite Muslims, broke out in December 2015 in the city of Zaria in Kaduna state when the army killed over 1,000 innocent Muslims. During the incident, the Islamic Movement in Nigeria leader Sheikh Zakzaky and his wife were shot and badly wounded and thereafter detained by Nigerian security agencies. They have since then been held incommunicado by security forces with their health rapidly deteriorating.
The massacre and continued persecution of Shiite Muslims continues amid a deafening silence by the UN which has ignored the crimes committed by the Nigerian regime against Muslims in the West African state.
