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FG accuses El-Zakzaky of displaying ulterior motives, making unethical requests

By Nkechi Onyedika-Ugoeze, Abuja
15 August 2019   |   3:45 am
The Federal Government has urged Nigerians to disregard the “foul cry” of the leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky, that he was allegedly being denied immediate treatment at the behest of state authorities.

El-Zakzaky aboard a flight from Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja to India for medical treatment …yesterday.

The Federal Government has urged Nigerians to disregard the “foul cry” of the leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky, that he was allegedly being denied immediate treatment at the behest of state authorities.

Insisting that the ailing Islamic cleric was having ulterior motives and breaching laid down procedures, government alleged that the IMN leader, against medical ethics and standard practices, requested to nominate doctors of his choice to join the ones tasked by Medanta Hospital in New Delhi, India to operate on him and his wife, thus creating a stalemate.

Government said that having been frustrated by his antics, the Indian authorities have expressed intention to return El-Zakzaky to Nigeria with immediate effect, as the host country maintained that they would not allow him to their country to internationalise his group’s activities.

In a statement yesterday in Abuja, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Information and Culture, Grace Isu Gekpee, stated that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration had fulfilled its part of the August 5 court order granting El-Zakzaky leave to travel to India for medical treatment by allowing him to go with government officials as well as his personal doctors and aides as the ruling specified.

She wondered while the Shiites’ leader, who chose the particular medical facility in the Asian nation, was beginning to “display ulterior motives against laid down procedures.”

According to her, ‘’El-Zakzaky requested that his passport be handed over to him while the situation became worse in India, as he refused to subject himself to preliminary medical checks.”

‘’In addition, he demanded free movement and access to visitors of all kind as well as requested to be allowed to check into a five-star hotel instead of being admitted in the hospital. The request was refused on the ground that he came into the country for medicals and not as a tourist (more so that his visa was issued on medical grounds and not for tourism).

“He also demanded that police protection be withdrawn from him by the Indian authorities,” Gekpee claimed.

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