Nigeria Regime Urged To Release Sheikh Zakzaky amid Virus Outbreak

By Staff, Agencies

The Islamic Movement in Nigeria [IMN] urged the country’s regime to release its already severely ailing leader Sheikh Ibrahim al-Zakzaky given the risks he faces from the continued imprisonment amid the Coronavirus outbreak.

The IMN made the plea in a statement addressed to Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari and the local officials in the north-central Kaduna State, where the cleric was first arrested in 2015. Various Nigerian media outlets carried the statement, which the movement had sent them on Friday.

“Sheikh Zakzaky deserves immediate freedom for very many reasons particularly at this difficult period that the nation is facing the scourge of Coronavirus,” it wrote.

The novel virus that can cause a potentially fatal respiratory infection called Covid-19 has killed close to 102,700 people worldwide since emerging in central China late last year. Nigeria has reported seven deaths and 240 active cases.

The IMN reminded that even before the outbreak, Sheikh Zakzaky was already in need of “expert medical attention as a result of the injuries he sustained when the military attacked his residence in December 2015.”

Nigeria’s military carried out the attack as part of a deadly state-ordered escalation targeting the movement that Abuja has branded as illegal.

During the attack, the 66-year-old cleric was beaten and lost his left eye and his wife sustained serious wounds.

The military also attacked the movement’s members as they were holding religious processions, with the government alleging that Muslims had blocked a convoy of the country’s defense minister. The movement has categorically rejected the allegation, and said the convoy had intentionally crossed paths with the IMN’s members to whip up an excuse to attack them.

The violence led to the death of three of Zakzaky’s sons and more than 300 of his followers.

The statement noted that Sheikh Zakzaky had “additionally suffered multiple strokes while in detention and was found to have dangerously very high levels of toxic heavy metals circulating in his system.”