The Nigerian police on Saturday disrupted a peaceful birthday celebration of Fatima, daughter of Ibraheem El-Zakzaky, the leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, IMN, the group said in a statement on Sunday. The birthday celebration was taking place in Kano.
“The event was being held by Sisters Forum of the IMN at the Royal Tropicana Hotel Kano, as part of a series of activities earmarked to commemorate the birthday anniversary of Fatima, the daughter of Prophet Muhammad, usually held annually at this time of the year,” said IMN spokesman, Ibrahim Musa.
He said the programme was attended by guests from different parts of the country, and “had started at peacefully around 10:00am only for a team of armed security agents to storm the venue after the morning session to forcefully halt the continuation of the afternoon session, saying that they have been given directives from Abuja to halt the event at all cost”.
He added:
“Consequently, the subsequent sessions of the event were put off to prevent a possible unnecessary bloodbath that the heavily armed security men in several trucks were poised for. Clearly, a mere religious ceremony by some faithfuls in a hall of a hotel is not a crime or life threatening event to warrant such forcible halting with Armed Forces.
“It is believed that this unprovoked attack by Kano state security agents must have been engineered by Governor Ganduje, who has been quoted recently in the media telling Wahabbi clerics on the payroll of Saudi Arabia that he will do everything under his power to bring to an end to what he termed as the spread and growth of Shia in Kano”.
In a related development, some armed thugs attacked members of IMN in Mariri, a village near Saminaka, Lere Local Government of Kaduna state, injuring many, mostly children, Mr. Musa said.
“The thugs went to the house of the leader of IMN members in the village after Friday prayers, heavily armed with crude weapons and inflicted dagger wounds on the children left in the house. They then proceeded to the Islamic school owned by IMN with the intent of burning it, but were prevented from torching the school.
“The same thugs are believed to be the responsible for looting shop of a member of IMN last week, under the pretense of celebrating the return of president Buhari from medical vacation in London. Police has not carried out any arrest of any of the perpetrators or took measures to stop them”.