Hawzah News Agency - In a statement signed by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, and the National Media Affairs Director, Miss Zainab Yusuf, HURIWA accused the federal government of systematic but illegal clampdown on the members of the Shiites group who, in any case, are entitled to the full enjoyment of all the fundamental rights’ provisions contained in the Nigerian Constitution and global human rights laws.   

Terming the actions of the security forces especially armed police against the Shiite members as unconstitutional persecution of Nigerians, the body has also called for the release from detention of Shaykh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky or his immediate prosecution in the competent court of law because the indefinite detention without trial of a citizen amounts to a grave violation of the fundamental human rights of such a citizen.  

“We condemn in no uncertain term, the continuous confrontation targeting members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) by security forces in which lethal weapons are allegedly deployed resulting in the extra-judicial killings of Nigerian citizens which is a direct violation of Section 33 (1) of the Constitution which provides thus: ‘Every person has a right to life, and no one shall be deprived intentionally of his life, save in execution of the sentence of a court in respect of a criminal offence of which he has been found guilty in Nigeria.  

 According to HURIWA, the attack by the police in Kano of members of Shiites was absolutely unlawful and primitive just as the Rights group called for an independent investigation into the inciden prosecution of the armed police indicted over the killings.   

Last month, the government in Nigeria’s Kaduna state declared the IMN as an “unlawful society”, claiming that its processions were a danger to peace, and said anyone convicted of being a member of the movement could be incarcerated for up to seven years. At least 20 people were killed and several others injured on October 12, when Nigerian forces opened fire on Muslim mourners commemorating Ashura, the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Hussein. 

Supporters of the IMN have been subjected to heavy-handed crackdown since last year, when the army attacked a religious ceremony in their stronghold city of Zaria in the north, claiming the lives of hundreds of people.   

In December 2015, Nigerian forces raided the house of the IMN’s leader, Shaykh Zakzaky, and arrested him after killing those trying to protect him, including one of the movement’s senior leaders and its spokesman.

He still remains in custody of the army.   

The raid occurred a day after Nigerian soldiers attacked a group of Muslims attending a ceremony at a religious center in Zaria, accusing them of blocking the convoy of the army’s chief of staff and attempting to assassinate him.   

The Nigerian army killed 348 Muslims during the attack on the religious ceremony, according to a report by the Islamic Human Rights Commission, a non-profit organization based in London. This is while the international community has so far failed to take measures to end the crackdown in the African country. 

The Shaykh himself was shot seven times during the attacks and blinded in one eye.