Shiite Group Exonerates Members from Journalist’s, Police Officer’s Death

Shiite Group Exonerates Members from Journalist’s,
Police Officer’s Death

Yesterday the Nigeria police force headquarters issued a press
statement in which it ascribed the death of DCP Usman A.K Umar in
particular to the Islamic Movement in Nigeria under the leadership
of the illegally detained Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky.

We vehemently condemn such insinuation which we believe was done
in bad taste to once again tarnish our hard earned credit as the
only non-violent Movement in the country.

A quick analysis of images and video clips showed that the Free
Zakzaky procession was peacefully progressing prior to the brutal
crackdown. It also clearly showed that the protesters weren’t
bearing arms as usual and traffic was moving smoothly without
hindrance.

Furthermore, the images also showed the police, armed to the
teeth, were intent on stopping the movement of the protesters, at
all cost. Few other policemen and plain cloth security agents were
seen piling used tyres for use to set bonfires. By the time the
police struck, about a dozen members of the Islamic Movement had
been killed. The police were seen picking the corpses to an
undisclosed location, perhaps for mass burial.

Also shot were the Channels TV reporter, Precious Owolabi and
their colleague, a Deputy Commissioner of Police, whom photographs
showed was struck from the back of his head with the bullet exit in
front, an indication that he was a victim of friendly fire. It is a
known fact among the intelligence community that you don’t retreat
from a mob with your back turned against them. This is one of the
tenets of crowd control for law enforcement agencies. As if to hide
this fact, the late policeman was hurriedly buried without any form
of postmortem examination, which would have revealed the source of
the bullet.

It seems the security agents strategically killed the Journalist
to turn the media against us. They also killed the police officer
to incite the security community against us and to stigmatize us.
They are the ones with guns and they are the ones doing the
shootings and also doing the killings, then fraudulently lie to
Nigerians that their victims are the violent ones!

They are working hard to portray the Islamic Movement in Nigeria
as a terrorist organization that is why they have started killing
people in our name including our supporters. We decry such
shameless play with peoples lives with reckless abandon.

We therefore call on the federal government detaining our
leader, Sheikh Zakzaky and his wife, Malama Zeenah Ibrahim,
preventing them from seeking proper medication, to toe the line of
House of representatives that some weeks ago called on it to
address the root cause of this needless spill of innocent blood,
which is the contemptuous disregard of a federal high court order
granting the Sheikh is freedom and fundamental human rights.

Finally, on behalf of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, we wish
to commiserate with the friends and families of those needlessly
killed by this police brutality. In particular, our heartfelt
condolences to the slain officer’s and the journalist’s families
and the Channels Television as well.

SIGNED:
IBRAHIM MUSA
PRESIDENT MEDIA FORUM ISLAMIC MOVEMENT IN NIGERIA