Members of the Islamic Movement (IMN) in Nigeria, otherwise known as Shi’ites, have called for the immediate release of their leader, Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky, and wife, Zeenat, from the Kaduna correctional facility.
The group made the call in a statement issued by its President, Media Forum, Ibrahim Musa, on Saturday.
According to him, their request was necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic ravaging the world.
Recall that inmates of the Kaduna Correctional Centre where the Shi’ites leader and wife are being held recently revolted over fears of the coronavirus spreading to the facility.
The revolt resulted in the death of four inmates of the centre.
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The statement partly read: “Since the outbreak of this coronavirus pandemic, many countries all over the world have been releasing prison inmates in their thousands ostensibly to decongest them, but also as a way of releasing the innocent ones among them who were unjustly detained.
“By so doing, the nation receives succour from the creator of the world because of the magnanimity.
“It is in this same vein that Nigerian government is expected to release the foremost prisoner of faith in the country and the leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky, who has been in detention for almost five years with ailments he sustained in the course of his arrest and detention.”
El-Zakzaky and his wife have been in detention since 2015 following their arrest after a clash between the Nigerian Army and the IMN over an attack on the convoy of the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, in Zaria, Kaduna State.
