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Shiites deny plotting terror attacks

By Saxone Akhaine, Northern Bureau Chief
19 December 2016   |   4:26 am
Members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) have faulted a statement credited to Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai that the movement was planning to unleash terror on the country.
The leader of Islamic Movement of nigeria otherwise known as Shi''te, Ibrahim El-Zakzaky

The leader of Islamic Movement of nigeria otherwise known as Shi”te, Ibrahim El-Zakzaky

Members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) have faulted a statement credited to Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai that the movement was planning to unleash terror on the country.

The movement contended that its tagging as a terrorist group by the state government in a white paper was a ploy to “give the dog a bad name in order to hang it.”

The Islamic group’s spokesman, Mallam Ibrahim Musa, alleged that “in the aftermath of the brutal attack on Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky and IMN by the Nigerian government in December last year, frantic steps have been undertaken by state officials and security agencies to portray the movement as violent.

“This is to give retroactive justification to its hostile actions against the IMN. The hallmark of this misnomer was the recent declaration by the Kaduna State governor that the movement is even an insurgent group.”

Musa noted that “this has appeared to garner currency among security agencies in Kano, Sokoto, Katsina, Plateau and lately Jigawa states, with officials parroting the ridiculous pronouncement, and some going steps further to insist that IMN should be monitored because it is a violent group.”

He went on: “The maintenance of this false position without basis is an indication that there is a sinister scheme by these government officials to create an insurgency in our name, out of desperation to stamp out the Islamic movement.

“We wish to strongly reject such unjustified tagging of the IMN. For the avoidance of doubts, we would like the world to know that we have never and do not even contemplate taking up arms against anyone. Our leader, El-Zakzaky, has in the over four decades of the existence of the movement taken a non-violent posture, repeatedly saying that guns and other weapons are the tools of the insane.”

Musa added: “In all this time, our weapons have been truth, perseverance, sacrifice and a firm belief that no force or weapon can crush the truth no matter how powerful it appears. That has been the secret of the IMN remaining non-violent throughout the harrowing experience of the Zaria massacre.”

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