A group, identified as Centre for Excellence Leadership and Development has appealed to the Federal Government to release the travelling documents of the leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky and his wife, Zeenat in order to attend to their failing health abroad.
The group in a statement forwarded to the Tribune Online recalled that “it has been over two months since Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky (H) and his wife were acquitted and discharged by Kaduna State High Court, after spending almost six years in illegal detention.”
According to the statement signed by the group’s vice chairman, Dr Abubakar Manzo, “the couple who were arrested in December 2015 languished in DSS custody, before later being transferred to Kaduna Correctional Centre facility, with improperly managed life-threatening gunshot injuries and numerous health complications that require serious intervention.”
“Now that the couple is acquitted of all charges filed against them by the Kaduna State government, they should be allowed to attend to their health, wherever they choose to go, without undue frustration whatsoever.”
“But on the contrary, since their aborted medical trip, the couple’s passports and other documents that will allow them to travel is reportedly withheld, and have therefore no access to adequate medical care till date.”
“The deterioration in the couple’s health condition is so glaring as the Sheikh could be seen limping and his wife confined to a wheelchair as they exited the court premises last month. This is a consequence of lack of access to proper medical attention in the course of the years they have spent in illegal detention.”
“The Sheikh and his wife have suffered enough already: six of their children were extrajudicially killed in the pace of fewer than two years, over a thousand of his followers were killed and buried in mass graves, and hundreds of others killed while peacefully protesting against his illegal detention; therefore not allowing them to travel at the moment is tantamount to rubbing salt in their wounds.”
“As civil society organisation, we call the Federal Government as a matter of urgency to release the passports of the couple so that they can attend to their health. Injustice to one is an injustice to all, and for peace to reign clergymen, well-meaning individuals and all people of conscience should please urge the government to allow the ailing Sheikh and his wife to attend to their health.”
“Not allowing them to attend to their health is a flagrant violation of their fundamental human rights as citizens of the country. The right to attend to health is inalienable that should never be infringed upon.”
“We, therefore, urge the Federal Government under President Muhammadu Buhari to release the passports of Sheikh Zakzaky and his wife to enable them to travel to the hospital of their choice,” the statement concluded.
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