Army/Shiite clash: I escaped by the will of God — Buratai
Army/Shiite clash: I escaped by the will of God — Buratai
ABUJA—CHIEF of Army Staff, Lt-Gen. Tukur Buratai, said yesterday it
was by divine intervention that he escaped being assassinated on
Saturday, by members of the Shiites Muslim sect.
The sect on its part claimed that at least one thousand of its
members had been killed and that soldiers had evacuated their bodies
following the weekend clash between its members and the military.
Shiite Leaders
The Nigerian Army also said “the leader of the Shiite Islamic
Movement of Nigeria, Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky and his wife are in the
custody of the Nigerian Army, “safe and sound” in a secured and
protective custody.”
The army boss said contrary to claim that members of the Shiites
group were not armed, they were not only heavily armed but also
violently confronted him and his convoy on his way to Zaria.
The Army chief spoke to newsmen at the National Assembly complex,
shortly after attending an interactive meeting called by the Senate
Committee on Defence, for service chiefs.
“You want to know how I escaped? It was by the will of God that I was
able to escape from the place,”he said, while advising citizens to be
law abiding wherever they are.
Burati, Chief of Army Staff
Insisting that the group was violent, Buratai stressed: “ I think NTA
was there and they aired the clip, it was very clear . They were
violent and the clip is there.”
Meanwhile, the sect spokesman, Ibrahim Musa said. “We have reports
that bodies of our members killed outside the house of our leader,
Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky are being evacuated in trucks by soldiers and our
leader was arrested this morning (yesterday) in his demolished home by
soldiers where he had been holed up in a room that was spared from the
fire that gutted the house from grenades.”
Ibrahim Musa, in a statement he issued in Kaduna alleged that the
army was not only selectively killing its members yesterday, but it had
instigated the public to join in the killings.
The Nigeria Police, and Kaduna State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) were mute yesterday over the claims.
El-Zakzaky, wife in our custody — Army
The Nigerian Army said yesterday that the leader of the Shiite
Islamic Movement of Nigeria, Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky and his wife are
in its custody “safe and sound” in a secured and protective custody,
Addressing a late evening press conference yesterday, the General
Officer Commanding, GOC, 1 Division of Nigerian Army, Major General
Adeniyi Oyebade said the order given to the troops was to ensure that
the sect leader was taken into a safe custody and as at 09:15am he was
brought into the custody the Army with his wife and some family members.
The GOC further said that the sect leader would soon be allowed access to his members.
General Oyebade added that in the course of operation there were
casualties on both sides, but did not mention the number of casualties.
He said: “On December 12, 2015, myself and the Commissioner of Police
were with President Muhammadu Buhari who was in the state for an
assignment when I received a distress call that the life of the Chief of
Army Staff, COAS, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai was threatened by some
hoodlums who blocked his way on Sokoto road in Zaria city.
“After much persuasions from senior officers on the entourage, the
hoodlums who were later identified as Shi’ites members remain adamant
and in line with our rules of engagement, we have no option but to clear
the road for the COAS and in the course of doing that, the hoodlums
started throwing missiles on us; and our men responded which resulted to
minimum casualties.
“From there we received information that they have started mobilizing
in one of their temples at Husainiyya, the resident of the leader at
Gyellesu and on Dambo road. That was on Saturday night, this lead to a
long night of battle.
Protesting members of the Shiite sect
“We have nothing against the Shi’ites because they’re all Nigerians
and our duty is also to protect them. But we cannot tolerate them
forming a government within a government. I call on all shi’ites members
to be law abiding and go about their religious activities without
tampering with the freedom of others,” he said.
In its own statement, Shiite said: “Following the brutal attack on
the Islamic Movement in Nigeria by the Nigerian Army in Zaria where
scores have been extra-judicially killed, we wish to state as
follows: “A source has confirmed that the Army has taken the revered
leader of the Movement, Sayyid Ibraheem Zakzaky (H) from his house this
morning and is receiving treatment for injuries he sustained during the
attack.
“About a thousand of members of the Movement have been massacred at
the moment as counting continues, but the soldiers are now busy
evacuating the dead bodies to unknown destination.
“There are hundreds of others that have received various degrees of
injuries that are in need of assistance that have currently been denied
access by the soldiers on ground who are in a killing spree, shooting
anyone identified as a member of the Movement.
“The army is deliberately exploiting religious sectarian sentiment to
instigate uninformed public, some of whom are now busy killing innocent
and unarmed members of the Movement at sight using local weapons.
”The Army is at present dressing corpses of members of the Movement
with their military attire and snapping still pictures to probably
display them as soldiers killed by the Movement during the attack as a
means of propaganda, whereas it was solely an attack by the army on
armless citizens.”
“The army has also stationed road blocks in Zaria picking out
innocent unarmed people that look like members of the Movement and
killing them in cold block. Even today they put an army road block in
Zaria to Kaduna highway near Nuhu Bamalli Polytechnic, searching for any
member of the Islamic Movement. The most weird of many of such cases is
that of an army road block at Dogarawa near Zaria where they killed
thirty of our members traveling to Zaria yesterday Sunday.
“We wish to state here that some of those earlier declared dead
through various sources might not have been killed but might be severely
injured and in need of assistance.
“In connection with the above mentioned, we wish to declare as follows:
“Members of the Movement should be allowed immediate access to Sayyid
Ibraheem Zakzaky (H) as a means of taming the the situation from
aggravating unnecessarily.
“We believe that the army is clearing the corpses to unknown
locations for mass burials to cover up for it’s crime. We hereby demand
unequivocally that they should release the corpses to us, so that we can
give them a proper Islamic burial. The people they killed are not
foreigners, they are citizens with their relatives known.
“The Army should stop the unnecessary stage management of the whole
incident making it look like what it is not through false and
provocative press statements, incitements and ground activities which
might not augur well for everyone.
“Access to health facilities should immediately be allowed to those injured anywhere in Zaria.
“We believe that this incident is planned and executed by the
government which has been looking the other way while the army was
killing members of the Movement for a period of over 27 hours from
Saturday on without any statement and is still quiet as the army
continues with its killing spree.
“The Islamic Movement in Nigeria is a peaceful and unarmed Movement
with members in every cadre of the society that are entitled to every
rights enjoyed by every other Nigerian, including religious rights,
whose fundamental rights have been trampled upon by the government in
its claim to be fighting against violent extremism, but instead
spreading violence and hatred using state machinery.
“Finally, as the Army continues its genocide on members of the
Movement, with support of the government, we hereby call on peace lovers
and the international community to join us in condemning the act for it
is virtually ridiculous to think that the government can kill the
millions of members of the Movement”.
Meanwhile, Vanguard findings showed that normalcy has returned to the
affected parts of Zaria town and government offices, markets, shops and
other business activities as well as bus town services had commenced.
But Banks in Zaria remained under lock and key.
“We are grateful things are gradually coming back to shape,” said Makama Sani, to our reporter on phone.
“As I am taking to you now I am just from PZ area, I went round Sabongari and came back to Tudun Wada area,” he said.
