SHAFAQNA – Media outlet Vanguard reported this Monday that Sheikh Ibraheem al-Zakzaky, the leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, had been secretly flown to France for treatment for fear his death would lead to an uprising.
sheikh Zakzaky was shot an estimated 6 times when soldiers raided his home-town of Zaria in December 2015. Injured, he was taken into custody and held incommunicado by the state.
Since his arrest rights organizations have systematically called for his immediate and unconditional release. A man of peace, Sheikh Zakzaky only ever called for social justice and equality in between religious communities.
During the raid, several members of Sheikh Zakzaky’s family were executed: his wife, his 3 children, and his elder sister Hajiya Fatima who was 70+ years.
Writing on the matter ABNA reported, “Several security sources who are knowledgeable in the matter however revealed yesterday that due to the seriousness of the injuries the Shiite leader sustained, he was secretly flown to France by the Nigerian government some weeks ago for treatment before being returned to the country two weeks ago.
One of the sources said: “it is true that the federal government flew him out of the country for treatment. He was stabilized before he was brought back to Nigeria. The government did not want to take chances by keeping him in the country. We did not want a repeat of the incidence with the late leader of the Boko Haram movement whose death in custody exacerbated the crisis in the north east”.
According to Haruna Elbinawi, a member of the IMN: The Nigerian authorities took Sheikh Zakzaky to France not because they have human sympathy, Nay; these people are extremely wicked & evil. They took him to France for better medical attention because some prominent Nigerians had warned President Buhari of the consequences of the death of Sheikh Zakzaky in their hands. Some of the members who were wounded from gun shot wounds died in Kaduna prison due to lack of proper medical attention & this is the true face of the Nigerian oppressors.”
It is impossible to look at the attack on Sheikh Zakzaky without understanding the pull Wahhabis have had on Nigeria and Africa in general. It is because the Sheikh denounced and rejected Wahhabism as a violent and oppressive dogma that he was targeted by the authorities.
For all their deviance Wahhabi clerics benefit from Saudi Arabia’s financial and political cover.