Residents of Zaria, Kaduna state on Saturday applauded the military action against the Islamic Movement in Nigeria otherwise known as Shi’ite. The feeling of the residents was made known by the spokesman of affected Zaria Communities, Idris Mohammed-Baba.
He said, “We are happy over military action against Shiite’s movement in Zaria because we have fresh air now blowing in our areas.”
Mohammed-Baba while addressing a news conference in Kaduna, also called on the Federal Government to urgently ban the Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky’s led Shiite movement in their communities.
But the sect on Saturday said the Nigerian Army’s claim that they killed hundreds of their members based on ‘rules of engagement’, was a mere ploy to cover up crime against the sect.
Ibrahim Musa, President of the Media Forum of the sect, said the claim by the Army was a cheap way of misleading the public over the maximum force adopted in killing the Shi’ite members in Zaria.
However, Mohammed-Baba said for over 20 years the Shi’ite sect had unleashed untold hardship on their host communities.
According to him, the Shiites had held people in Zaria and Sabon Gari Local Government areas of the state hostage with impunity and running a parallel government in the country.
He said: “My experience with Shiite followers is disastrous and terrible, at a point Shiite boys threatened to kill me. We are happy over military action against Shiite’s movement in Zaria because we have fresh air now blowing in our areas. Before now, we could not grant interview to the world about Shiite’s activities, but now we are sleeping with our two eyes closed. As a community, we wrote letters to the governments about ungodly activities of Shiites but no single action was taken.”
He added, “Shiites killed many of our people who challenged their activities. We buried them and we could not talk to the world because of their threat. We were living like slaves in our own land which Shiite leader, Sheikh El-Zakzaky came and met us.
“We residents of Gyallesu are calling on the Federal government to ban Shi’ite movement in our community and Kaduna state as a whole. Government should put a stop to their ungodly activities in our area.”
The group also made available documents dated 18th May, 2015 in which the Shiites declared some youths persona non grata.
But Musa, President of the Media Forum of the Islamic movement, debunked claims by the Army that the Movement had ‘militant wing.”
