The Academic Forum of the Islamic Movement has given reasons why President Muhammadu Buhari should be held accountable for the detriating health of the Sheikh Zakzaky.

The spokesman of the group, Abdullahi Muhammad Musa in a statement at the weekend, said argued that the sanctity of the lives of Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky and his wife, Malama Zeenah is under serious threats and danger.

They therefore demanded for the unconditional release of Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky and his wife.

The full statement reads:

Inalienable as fundamental rights are, Buhari has practically violated all against Sheikh Zakzaky and his wife, Malama Zeenah. From the right to personal liberty, to dignity, to whatnot; even the inviolable right to life is threatened, day after day.

The sanctity of their lives is under serious threats and danger as the poisoned bullet shrapnel which give rise to highly concentrated lead pellets continue to wreak some havoc after the other.

Irresponsible government leadership has no more than impunity to usher in the territory under its control.

By doing so, encroachment and infringement of the rights of citizenry become the order of the day. This writs large with the health condition of Sheikh Zakzaky and his wife in the unhealthy, overcrowded Kaduna prison.

The couple are seriously sick, and gradually dying in Buhari’s gaol. As their health continues to deteriorate without any sign or an iota of getting better, it is apposite to firmly state that Buhari is responsible for its getting worse.

For, no human right as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria [as amended] upon which Buhari has not trampled against the duo.

There is no doubt that Buhari is the architect of Zaria-massacre and a series of ruthless persecutions of those who oppose the regime’s crackdown on Sheikh Zakzaky’s supporters.

Peaceful protesters have been killed in large number in broad day light, places of worship, schools, homes and other properties demolished without cause. There is virtually no civil right that the regime has not violated.

The regime has tampered with both domestic and international laws to be able to fulfil its agenda. Desperation is what is clearly seen in every move it makes. Is this absolutist tyrant thinking that the public has forgot the heinous atrocities he ordered for in Zaria.

Through Zaria-massacre, over a thousand of people have got and still are missing. At least 347 people were secretly dumped in mass grave, some in their last gasp.

At the time, Sheikh Zakzaky’s elder sister and dozens of other women and children were flung into a room, locked from behind, doused in fuel and then set ablaze. These brutalities were initially wrought under the pretext of “road blockade,” and “assassination attempt”.

But, in his maiden media chat, Buhari falsified the initial couple of pretexts and sought to justify the carnage with his far more laughable claim of creating “a state within a state.”

Of the survivors, about two hundred were illicitly imprisoned and falsely charged with culpable homicide for one Corporal Dan Kaduna’s death.

Having expended close to five years in prison, the case resulted in their acquittal despite unnecessary and deliberate delays in the legal proceedings, which overwhelmingly established that he was killed in what was termed as friendly fire.

The Judicial Commission of Inquiry (JCI) on the massacre chaired by Justice Mohammed Lawal Garba, discovered that “the oral order for the Cordon and Search Operation issued by GOC 1 Div which led to the deployment of officers and men of the Nigerian Army for operational use, was in contravention of the provisions of Section 8 of the Armed Forces Act No. 24 of 1994.

The JCI recommends the prosecution of the perpetrators. Four years after the report, not one single individual has been prosecuted by the Buhari regime.

The public is not unaware that after the 2015 massacre, Sheikh Zakzaky and his wife, through their chief counsel, Femi Falana, SAN, approached the Federal High Court, Abuja for the enforcement of their fundamental rights.

On December 2, 2016, the Court delivered a historic judgement, ordering Buhari to release the couple, unconditionally.

The regime ignored the order and spent the next year to come up with a way to provide legal cover for their continued detention.

With the full support of Kaduna State governor, Nasiru El-Rufa’i, they brought forth concocted charges.

The cooked-up charges at Kaduna High Court centre on aiding and abetting his followers for culpable homicide, and the same State Judiciary had discharged and acquitted those accused of committing the homicide.

Therefore, the arraignment and continuous detention of the two is a manifestation of the Buhari regime’s commitment to rule with impunity, to disregard the rule of law, to impose the whim of Buhari and his inner circle and to protect their personal interests at all costs and to quash all opposition by any means necessary.

Obviously, Sheikh Zakzaky and his wife are in serious need of proper medical attention, their health condition is deteriorating, yet Buhari denies them the inalienable rights to it. In consequwnce, whatever happens to either of the couple, he will be held responsible.

Finally, we demand unconditional release of Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky and his wife.

Abdullahi Muhammad Musa
For the Academic Forum of the Islamic movemen

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