The residents of Gyallesu in Zaria, Kaduna State have called on human rights groups to look into the pains caused their community by Shiite Islamic sect led by Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky.
They also called on the Federal Government to ban Shiite sect, Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), in their community and Kaduna State as a whole.
The spokesperson for the community, Idris Baba, told a news conference in Kaduna on Saturday that Shiites had held people in Zaria and Sabon Gari Local Government Areas of the state hostage with impunity and running a parallel government.
Baba said: “We the elders are calling on our children who left their homes in order to save their lives due to attacks and threat by the Shiite followers to return home.”
Baba narrated their ordeals in the hands of Shiite followers for over 20 years in Zaria.
He said: “My experience with Shiite followers is disastrous and terrible.
“At a point, Shiite boys threatened to kill me.”
Baba also said Shiites had in May 2015 declared 24 youths persona non-grata for challenging their activities in Gyallesu where Zakzaky resides.
He said: “Before, we can’t grant interview to the world about Shiite’s activities.
“But now (after Shiites clash with military), we are sleeping with our two eyes closed.
“We are happy over military action against Shiites movement in Zaria because we have fresh air now blowing in our areas.
“We are Muslims, but we discovered that Shiites’s activities are contrary to Islam.”
Another resident, Alhaji Saidu Garba, said the activities of the sect have crippled the once booming economy of the area.
He said: “After El-Zakzaky was released from detention in 1999, he came and settled in Gyallesu. Since then there is no peace in our area. We thank Allah for touching the heart of government and the military for liberating us from Shiites untold hardship.”
Meanwhile, the IMN Saturday evening held a protest in Kano to condemn the military clampdown.
The protest kicked up from the Federal College of Education (FCE), Kano junction along Kofar Kabuga Road towards Old City and ended at Gwale Rimin Tsiwa neighbourhood along Sabon Titi.
People carrying Free Zakzaky posters reiterated the call for the immediate release of the sect’s leader and his followers.
Mal Yusuf Abdullahi Na’ibawa spoke after the exercise reiterating the purpose of the protest march and gave update of the situation after two weeks of the Zaria clash of December 12, with many onlookers saying “no to the misuse of power and authority:.
He reiterated that the protesters are demanding for “unconditional and immediate release of Zakzaky for proper medical attention, immediate release of all followers of Zakzaky, returning of the bodies of all they (soldiers) killed for proper Islamic burial they deserve and paying for compensation of all damages carried out by government and its agencies.”
Similar protests were held in Yola, Adamawa State and Jalingo, Taraba State
