As the spiritual leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), Sheikh Ibrahim El-zakzaky, has spent more than 600 days in detention, the movement has renewed the call for his unconditional release.
This was contained in a statement issued to the Nigerian Tribune in Kaduna and signed by the spokesman of the movement, Ibrahim Musa .
The statement said, ‘Today marks exactly 600 days since the illegal detention of our reverred leader, Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky despite a valid court order for his release.
‘We continue to strongly voice our opposition to the lame excuses forwarded by the government for his continued incarceration, especially the most irrational of all – that of the so-called ‘protective custody’.
‘The Federal High Court in Abuja has since declared as alien to all known laws of the land and indeed all laws known to man, the concept of protective custody.
“It, therefore, ordered the release of the reverred Sheikh. However, to the consternation of all, especially the international community, the Federal Government has continued to contemptuously defy the order.
“In his considered judgement, the learned judge of the Abuja Federal High Court, Gabriel Kolawole, said inter-alia: “the first and third respondents have not been able to discharge the burden placed on them to prove either the legality of the applicant’s detention in the first respondent’s custody, or to prove that he consents to his being held in a “protective custody”.
Justice Kolawole continued, “When I reflected on all the issues and questions which I had raised in the course of reviewing the processes filed and exchanged by both parties, not only was I unable to set my eyes on the provision of any law or the constitution by which the applicant’s detention, albeit in a “protective custody” can be justified.”
“I was unable to answer or resolve any of the questions or issues set down in the addresses filed and exchanged in favour of the 1st and 3rd respondents who as I had earlier remarked, in constitutional jurisprudence, bears the burden they need to discharge against the presumption of law that every act of detention is prima facie unlawful, illegal and unconstitutional until the State or any of its Agencies or Agents is able to show the legal justification for such infraction of fundamental rights to personal liberty, and it can only do so within the exceptions prescribed and recognized by the Constitution itself. This in essence, is the basic concept of constitutionalism and rule of law in very democratic State such as ours.
Surprisingly, the statement posited ‘Government continue to hide under this façade to deceive the public on the actual reasons it continues to breech Sheikh Zakzaky’s freedom.
Undoubtedly, Sheikh Zakzaky is still languishing in jail for no other reasons than his religious views and call for the establishment of divine justice and for his daring comments on contemporary socio-political events locally and internationally, the statement declared.
It also said, ‘As the Sheikh clocks 600 days in illegal detention, we renew our unequivocal call for his immediate and unconditional release. We strengthen our individual and collective resolve, undeterred by continued brutal persecution, to campaign in all lawful and peaceful ways for his release as well as that of his wife and other IMN members also unjustifiably detained. We will leave no stone unturned in our lawful demand for justice for the over a thousand citizens killed extra judicially during the Zaria genocide of December, 2015.
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