Members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria are demanding for the unconditional release of their leader, Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, from detention.
The group said that without El-Zakzaky’s release, they would shun the Judicial Commission Inquiry set up by the Kaduna State Government.
The committee was set up to investigate the cause of the December 12, 2015 clash between members of the movement popularly known as Shiite and the Nigerian Army in Zaria.
The incident led to the death of several people in which the Nigerian Army and the group have been trading blames over who was responsible for the clash after the incident.
The Shiites maintained in a statement issued by their spokesman, Ibrahim Musa, that El-Zakzaky, being the custodian of the documents of the movement, was in the best position to give approval for members to appear before the committee as no other member has such powers to do so.
They also insisted that the military and the Police must make public, the number of their members in the various detention facilities across the north.
The Shiites further demanded that the commission must give full assurance of protecting their members that would appear before it to give evidence.
They asked the Kaduna State Government and the state’s Police Command to disclose the number of persons it has charged to court and the number of persons it has in prison custody.
According to the statement: “The leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria should be released unconditionally. The Nigerian government is holding the leader of the movement incommunicado, knowing that he is the custodian of the documents of the movement and has to give direction to the movement in the preparation of its memorandum and the assembling of its witnesses.
“The Nigerian military and the Nigerian Police must make a full disclosure of the number of persons in their various detention centres and grant lawyers of the movement access to most of them.
“The Nigerian military and the Nigerian Police must also make full disclosure of the number of persons they took to the various hospitals and the location of the hospitals to enable the lawyers of the movement have access to them and interview them preparatory to the inauguration of the commission,” the statement read.
