Despite the proscription order, top members of the Islamic
Movement in Nigeria (IMN) on Friday, August 2nd allied with the decision of
daughter of their detained leader, Ibraheem El-Zakzaky that protest will
continue until her parents are released.
The group also disowned the statement issued last Wednesday
by its spokesman, Ibrahim Musa that they have suspended the protests inline
with the proscription of the sect by the Federal Government through a court
order.
Suhaila Zakzaky in videos shared on her Facebook page last
Thursday, questioned the ban and said the protest will continue until her
father is released. A statement by a top member of the IMN, Abdullahi Musa, for
Academic Forum, Sisters’ Forum and Abul-Fadl, said other IMN members were not
informed about the ban on protests.
Musa said: “On the 31st day of July, 2019 a press statement
titled “We Are Temporarily Suspending Our Street Protests” and signed by Malam
Ibrahim Musa, President of the Media Forum of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria,
went viral. The article was published and aired by numerous media outlets, both
local and international.
“In the statement, it was written that “this was mainly to
create openings into the resolution of problems, especially the court case
instituted by our lawyers on the proscription order by the federal government
this week.” It further claimed that “if at all any protests occurred anywhere
in the country, it might be this notice hasn’t reached those in the field or
this message is misunderstood or it is some security agents who are behind it.
“First of all, we would like to state for the record that
apart from members of the media forum none of us was informed of this prior to
seeing it in the papers and online. Secondly, the media forum of the Islamic
Movement is supposed to consist of Press men and thus has no involvement in the
organizing of our ceremonies, our protests or legal activities among others.
Thirdly, no decision of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria has ever been
communicated on the page of a newspaper.
“Contrary to what the statement may insinuate; it is
important to note that the proscription order was not an act of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria, but rather from some Federal High Court in the capital
Abuja. Bear in mind that courts do not make laws, the National Assembly does;
and there is a process involved. Under the Constitution even the president
lacks the legal authority to simply pronounce edicts into law; Nigeria is not
an absolute monarchy. Most preeminently, the right to protest peacefully is
enshrined in the Nigerian Constitution. Impunity is not.”
The IMN disowned Ibrahim Musa as their spokesman adding
that: “In the aftermath of the publication of this unfortunately misleading
statement, we subsequently tried to investigate the source of this frankly
confusing document. We have consulted extensively with fellow followers of
Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky on this matter. Our only conclusion is that this whole
affair was a combination of misinformation, miscommunication, human error and
other significant factors.
“Here in Abuja, we are legally protesting the illegal
detention of our leader and his wife. By doing this for our leader, we are also
legally protesting against all forms of illegal detention, extrajudicial
killings, among numerous other illegal perpetrations of injustice, by this
current administration.
The statement signed by Malam Ibrahim Musa of the media
forum does not, in any way, reflect the beliefs and convictions of the Islamic
Movement in Nigeria. A single representative of a Forum within the Islamic
Movement has no authority to single-handedly dictate his opinion on every one
of us. Only our leader Sheikh Zakzaky may do that.
“For this reason, we are compelled to caution the media to
never treat, any further, such explicit declarations by any member of the
Islamic Movement in Nigeria in general, and Ibrahim Musa in particular, without
a grain of salt.
We wish to also explicitly state that we are fully
determined to continue our protests. We shall continue our peaceful protests,
uninterrupted and unhindered till our leader Sheikh Zakzaky is free, for as
long as it takes, regardless of obstacles. Until Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky is
Free, our protests will continue.”
