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Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana, has revealed how leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, and his wife agreed to speak to the media, at the weekend.
The rights activist said the IMN leader spoke to journalists on the assumption that his release was imminent.
El-Zakzaky briefly addressed journalists last Saturday, to disprove claims that he was dead and to say he was “getting better.”
According to Falana, the Department of State Services (DSS) told the Shi’ites leader that the Federal Government was ready to let him go, after over two years in custody.
The lawyer called on the government to release him from incarceration “without further delay.”
He claimed El-Zakzaky has lost his left eye and government has ignored specialists’ advise that he should be taken abroad “to save the right eye.”
Falana said the Shi’ites leader’s wife has “been subjected to excruciating pain as some of the bullets deposited in her body on December 14, 2015, during the military invasion of their home in Zaria, Kaduna State, have not been removed.
“Last week, it was widely rumoured in the social media that Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky had died in the illegal custody of the DSS. Although, I was compelled to dismiss the dangerous rumour, via a public statement, I requested the federal government to release the Shi’ite leader and his wife, for urgent medical attention.
“Instead of acceding to my request, the DSS misinformed Sheikh El-Zakzaky and his wife of the readiness of the federal government to release them, after a media parade, to assure the Shia community that the Sheikh is alive and well.
“Hence, they agreed to the media parade which lasted for one minute and 20 seconds (on Saturday), in an undisclosed detention custody at Abuja.
“But, contrary to the official claim that the Shi’ite leader is hale and hearty, he is currently wearing a neck collar support, which was procured for him, when he fell, sometime last December.
“That was when his personal doctor was allowed to examine him for the first time in his over two-year detention. Before the neck injury, he had lost his left eye while the recommendation of eye specialists that he be flown abroad, to save the right eye, and prevent him from going totally blind, has been ignored by the federal government.
“In fact, the medical state of his wife is by far worse than his. She has been subjected to excruciating pain as some of the bullets deposited in her body on December 14, 2015, during the military invasion of their home in Zaria, have not been removed.
“Hence, organisers of the media parade deliberately prevented her from addressing media representatives, even though she was present at the so-called press conference.
“Having paraded the couple before the media, albeit illegally, the federal government should immediately proceed to purge itself of the aggravated contempt of the Federal High Court by complying with the order for their release from the illegal custody of the DSS.”
In December 2015, soldiers killed about 10 supporters of El-Zakzaky, during a clash between the entourage of the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant-General Tukur Buratai and Shi’ite members.
“The order, which was made on December 2, 2016, has not been set aside by any higher court. “Yet, the federal government, which claims to operate under the rule of law, has ignored the court order. However, if the federal government does not want to end the official impunity of treating a valid and subsisting court order with disdain, it should release the El-Zakzakys to their children, who have applied to take them abroad, for urgent medical treatment.
“This request is in line with Nigerian Prison Regulation 12, which stipulates that even convicts shall be released to their relatives or friends if the prison has no facilities for treating them. In Fawehinmi v The State (1990), 1 NWLR (pt 127) 486, the appellant was granted bail and released on bail, pending trial by a military junta. The situation should not be worse under a democratic dispensation…
“In the instant case, the El-Zakzakys have not been charged with any criminal offence whatsoever. The spurious claim of the federal government that the detainees are held “in protective custody” was pooh-poohed and dismissed by the Federal High Court (per G. O. Kolawole J.). Instead of chasing the shadow, by subjecting the couple to illegal media parade, the federal government should direct the DSS to release them from illegal incarceration without further delay,” Falana said yesterday.
In December 2015, soldiers killed about 10 supporters of El-Zakzaky, during a clash between the entourage of the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant-General Tukur Buratai and Shi’ite members.
The development sparked a war of words between the army and the sect following claims that IMN members had attempted to assassinate Buratai, after they blocked a major highway in the town and allegedly refused the army chief’s entourage passage.
