Residents of Zaria, in Kaduna State, yesterday, called on the Federal Government to immediately ban the activities of the Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky’s-led Islamic movement in the state and Nigeria at large.
They said the action was long overdue because of the untold hardship the Shiites sect had unleashed on them since the last 20 years that the group emerged.
At a press conference in Kaduna, the spokesperson of the affected Zaria communities, Mallam Idris Mohammed Baba, said the Shiites had held people in Zaria and Sabon Gari Local Council Areas hostage with impunity, alleging that the Islamic sect was running a parallel government in the country.
He said that the Shiites had in May 2015 declared 24 youths persona non grata for challenging the activities of the sect in Gyellesu community, where El-Zakzaky resides.
“Before, we couldn’t grant interview to the press about Shiite’s activities, but now we are sleeping with our two eyes closed. As a community, we wrote letters to the government about ungodly activities of Shiites but no single action was taken.
Alhaji Saidu Garba, one of the Gyallesu elders, said “After El-Zakzaky was released from detention in 1999, he came and settled in Gyallesu and since then, there is no peace in the area. We thank Allah for touching the heart of government and the military for liberating us from Shiites untold hardship.”
He continued, “Shiites killed many of our people, who challenged their activities. We buried them and we cannot talk to the world because of their threat. We were living like slaves in our own land, where Shiite leader, Sheikh El-Zakzaky, met us.”
