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IMN Rejects White a Paper on Panel Report
John Shiklam in Kaduna
The Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) outlawed by the Kaduna State Government has rejected the White Paper on the report of the judicial commission of inquiry which investigated the clash between it and the Nigerian Army in Zaria in December 2015.
The state government on Monday released the White Paper which justified the military action and defended the mass burial given to the over 300 members of the IMN that were killed during the incident, the military and government acted within the provisions of the law.
The White Paper also declared the IMN as insurgent group and held that the leader of the IMN, Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky was responsible for the clash.
However, in a statement in Kaduna, the IMN said the release of the White Paper was ‘a belated and malicious response to the Judgment of the Federal High Court, Abuja which ordered the release of Zakzaky within a period of 45 days from the date of judgment as well the building of a new house for him and payment of N50million compensation for the unconstitutional and illegal detention since December 14, 2015.
The statement signed by Sheikh AbdulHamid Bello, Head of the Martyr Foundation of the movement, said the IMN “is scandalised that the state government rejected the recommendations of the commission including matters that are not within its constitutional and legal competence.”
The statement stressed that “it is also unfortunate that the Kaduna state government , without any shred of evidence and in contemptuous disregard of the constitution and Nigeria’s international obligations rejected some of the core findings and conclusions of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry.
Bello declared that the IMN “rejects in its entirety the contents of the said White Paper and will issue a fuller report on the reasons for the rejection.”
He said: “It is shameful that the Kaduna state government would label the Islamic Movement in Nigeria an ‘insurgent’ group when they have not taken up arms against the country even in the face of extreme provocation and persecution by the government.”
