AhlulBayt News Agency

source : Scan
Monday

21 December 2015

1:19:09 PM
726167

Nigeria Chief of Army Staff 'Buratai' should be sacked & prosecuted over Zaria Shia Killings - says lawyer & HR activist

Section 39 of the 1999 Constitution grants every Nigerian citizen an unconditional right to freedom of expression while Section 40 grants freedom of association. Thus, Zakzaky and his members were well within their constitutional rights to hold a peaceful procession.

Ahlul Bayt News Agency - Lagos-based lawyer and human rights activist, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa Esq, at the weekend, called for the immediate sack of the Chief of Army Staff, Major-General Tukur Butatai and his prosecution, over what he described as the cold blooded murder of members of the Shiite Muslims of the Islamic Movement group by the Nigerian military.

He stated that there is no justification for the cold blooded murder of members of the Shiite Muslims of the Zakzaky group by the Nigerian military.

“The excuses that we have been fed with so far is that the Islamic movement obstructed the convoy of the chief of army staff in a location in Zaria. What the chief of army staff was doing in Zaria at that particular time, we have not been told.

“Section 39 of the 1999 Constitution grants every Nigerian citizen an unconditional right to freedom of expression while Section 40 grants freedom of association. Thus, Zakzaky and his members were well within their constitutional rights to hold a peaceful procession.

“Since coming into office in May, 2015, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari has instigated and received several procession of sycophants in his office in Aso Rock, in the usual fashion of chorus singing and solidarity visits and nobody has ever disturbed them.

“The relevant law applicable in the Zaria region is the Penal Code and if any member of the Zakzaky followers has breached any portion of that law, he or she should be dealt with according to law, not to be treated as animals or captured slaves, or be subjected to martial law. In this regard, it is totally barbaric and illegal, for the chief of army staff, to mobilise soldiers to invade a civilian territory, kill citizens at will, as if they are animals and then proceed to demolish their houses.

“In many of the photographs and videos circulating in the social media, Zakzaky himself was shown as having been shot and wounded and then conveyed in a wheel barrow, by soldiers, thoroughly dehumanised and traumatised, as if he was captured in the course of a war. This is totally unacceptable,” he stated.



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