The government of Kaduna State headed by Nasir el-Rufai has declared the Shia sect’s Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) as unlawful.
The IMN came to prominence when its members clashed with the army in the northern city of Zaria, Kaduna state, in December 2015. A judicial inquiry in August concluded that the army killed 348 of the sect’s members, indicting the garrison commander Major-General Adeniyi Oyebade. Nothing has been done since to prosecute the officer or any of his men.
But Governor el-Rufai instead moved last Friday to ban the IMN, whose leader Ibrahim Zakzaky is still being held without charge by the authorities. It appears to el-Rufai and the army that the activities of the Shia is unlawful, while the massacre of its members by the army is lawful.
El-Rufai’s stance is in stark variance to when he was in opposition to the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government of Goodluck Jonathan as Naijiant.com highlighted here:
After a clash in 2014, that led to the death of 31 Shi’ites, including four of Zakzaky’s sons, Rufai wrote on Facebook that the “genocidal Jonathanian army kills once again”.
Now, his response to an even more “genocidal” massacre is to ban the victims.
