Shiites Give Conditions to Appear before Commission of Inquiry

• Say FG, KDSG are in face-saving measure
• Express reservation about commission’s impartiality  

By Gboyega Akinsanmi in Lagos, Senator Iroegbu in Abuja and John Shiklam in Kaduna


The Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) popularly known as the Shiite group, yesterday disclosed that it would not appear before a Judicial Commission of Inquiry which the Kaduna State Government constituted to probe the clash between the Nigerian Army and the movement until certain conditions were met.

The group said the federal and Kaduna State governments “are in a face-saving measure regarding the gross human rights violations that it deliberately perpetrated.”

 The sect gave the conditions in a statement the President of its Media Forum, Mr. Ibrahim Musa, issued, saying the constitution of the commission was premeditated and that it would not appear before it except some conditions were fulfilled.
As canvassed in its statement, the sect called for the setting up of “an impartial judicial commission of inquiry made up of independent persons and members of the international human rights community to unravel the circumstances that led to the pogrom in Zaria and its environs.” 

It held that the events of December 12, 2015, that led “to the massacre of its members, the maiming of hundreds, the detention of its cadres and destruction of its properties are premeditated,” thereby expressing reservation about the impartiality of the commission.
The sect therefore said the first condition that would make it appear before the commission is the unconditional release of its leader, Sheik Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, who it said had been held in an undisclosed place since arrest.

It said the federal government “is holding our leader 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.” 
It also said it would appear before the commission only if the Nigerian army and  Police “fully disclose the number of persons in their various detention centres and grant our lawyers access to most of them.
 “This is because the movement has credible evidence that a large number of its members are still in detention in military facilities and detention Centres,” the sect explained.  

The sect demanded that the Nigerian army and police should disclose the number of persons they took “to various hospitals and the location of the hospitals to enable our lawyers have access to them and interview them preparatory to the inauguration of the commission.”
It demanded that the commission should guarantee the protection of its members that would give evidence, noting that the Kaduna State Government and the state police command “must disclose the number of persons it has charged to court and the number of persons it has in prison custody.

“This is necessary as the sate Police Command and the state government illegally and in a secret procedure granted detention orders against our members and herded them to the Kaduna Central Prison without taking any of them before any magistrate court.”
 The group aid over 200 members of the movement were in custody at the Kaduna Central Prison, noting that it had a list of 730 missing persons who were either killed or are still in detention facilities. 

It thus disputed the claim of the Nigeria army that there “is no single member of the movement with them. Those in military detention facilities should be released and corpses of those killed be handed over to us for befitting Islamic burials.“There are some members of the panel that are clearly neither impartial nor credible having shown open hostility to the movement and its leadership through their utterances, writings or actions in the past.

“Some had even called the government to go for the jugular of the Islamic Movement in the past. The movement does not see any possibility of fairness and justice from them due to their stance on the movement and Shia. 
 “Definitely in their position of arch-enmity with the movement compromises any fairness from them in this matter, independent human rights bodies should be included in the commission.”