A Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the Federal Government to release the leader of Islamic Movement in Nigeria, also known as the Shi’ite sect, Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky, and his wife, Zeenat, from the custody into an accommodation that must be provided within 45 days, Punch reports.
The sect leader and his wife arrested by the Army on December 14, 2015, have been in the custody of the Department of State Service since December 15, 2015.
Justice Gabriel Kolawole, delivering a joint judgment in the two rights enforcement suits filed by the two applicants, ordered that the government should give a befitting accommodation for the applicants, their family members and followers who used to live with them before they were arrested.
The judge ordered that the accommodation must be provided in Zaria, Kaduna State, or in other part of the state or any other part of northern Nigeria within the 45 days period.
The judge awarded N25m each, totalling N50m, to the Shi’ite leader and his wife, for the violation of their rights by being held in unlawful custody since December 14, 2015.
The Shi’ite leader and his wife were arrested after the violent encounter between members of his sect and soldiers in the convoy of the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, in Zaria, Kaduna State in December 2014.
Members of the Shiite Islamic Movement of Nigeria, IMN, on Thursday stormed the National Assembly to protest the continued detention of their leader, Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky according to News24.
The protesters, led by the secretary of the academic forum in Nigeria, Abdullahi Musa, said they had gathered to know the position of the Senate regarding the continued detention of their leader as well as ascertain when he would be released.
