Shi’te Women in Jos, Plateau State have held a peaceful demonstration, calling for the unconditional release of their leader, Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky, his wife and their other members that were wounded and still being detained by the Nigerian Army, so that they can be given proper treatment.
They have also called for the release of the corpses of those that were killed so that they can be buried according to Islamic rite.
The women, numbering hundreds and dressed in overall black attires, who warned that they were prepared to defend their religion with their blood, their lives and all their possessions, took their procession from their headquarters at Angwa Rogo and marched through Bauchi road to the Central Mosque holding the posters of their leader Zakzaky, while chanting songs demanding for his release and for justice to be done.
Speaking to journalists at the Central Mosque at Masalachi Jummah, the leader of the women, Malama Hajia Lubabatu Ladan, said “we are ready to use our blood, our lives and all we have to defend our religion because that is what Allah has decreed. And the Nigerian Army should know they have attacked harmless people and Allah will avenge for us.”
She said the procession was to show their solidarity with their movement and to condemn what happened between December 12 and 14, 2015, adding that “the soldiers had said our people blocked road and prevented them from passing through. But we believe that the whole thing was pre-planned because they killed those they said blocked the road and entered our headquarters and killed our men, women and children too, and also bombed the place.
“As if that was not enough for them, they went to the house of our religious leader, Alhaji Ibrahim Zakzaky and also killed women and children. In the history of Nigeria, no group has been so treated. We are not a sect. We are just a group of Muslims or an Islamic movement calling on people to come back to the ways of Allah.
“Some of our women were arrested, others were raped and then killed and their remains burnt. They went to ABU Teaching Hospital in Shika and collection some of the corpses that were taken there and gave them mass burial in order to hide the atrocities they have committed.
“The Federal Republic of Nigeria did not stipulate that people should be killed for blocking road; at worst they will be charged to court. They have not been fair to us. We are calling on the federal government to release our religious leader and his wife that were shot and taken away.
“More than 1,000 of our people were shot last year, three of his (Zakzaky’s) children were killed; this time again three of them were killed. We are not allowed access to those that were wounded for us to look after them for medical care, and they did not give us the corpses of those killed for us to bury them according the Islamic injunction”, she lamented.
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