(AhlulBayt News Agency) - In a statement signed by Musa Bayi Muhammad, coordinator of the group (AFIMN Bauchi Chapter), he said: Persecution will not stop our campaign for Shaikh Zakzaky's freedom.
"As the Nigerian government ups the ante by widening its gruesome crackdown on members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria who, since the engineered massacre that claimed the lives of hundreds of our agile brothers and sisters, have been staging peaceful demonstrations across various cities of this country to demand unconditional release of Shaikh Zakzaky, his wife and others", the statement said.
"Despite the fact that no cogent reason is given for his continued detention, despite the biased war of information launched against the Movement by the Nigerian media, we have remained united and steadfast. Yet, unwavering in our calls for justice and for our leader to be released unconditionally.
"Troubled by their shameful failure to justify the horrible massacre of our pacifist members as well as Zakzaky's detention, the Nigerian government in collaboration with some northern governors has resorted to arresting and opening fires on innocent Shia citizens without any aorta of provocation who trooped out in mass to commemorate the epic martyrdom of the third Shia Imam, Hussain (AS) which led to the martyrdom of more than a dozen mourners.
"Unsatisfied by the cruelty as they are notorious for, the same governors used their illegal ban on our activities, which are protected by the constitution, as a Trojan horse to incite Salafi hooligans into attacking us and demolishing our sanctuaries as well as using dangerous weapons to beat many of our armless brothers and sisters into a state of stupor.
"All these unsolicited inhumanities are being meted out to our members despite the fact that they have never committed any criminal offence in the name of their movement, but the Nigerian government is hellbent on making sure that it forces us to abandon our noble cause; they used the detention of Zakzaky to distract us from seeking justice for the massacre of our members and they are more than ever desperate to distract us from our peaceful calls for our leader to be freed.
"That is why they blame Shias for posing threat to national security seeming to pay no heed to Salafi clerics and their gullible minions who are publicly calling for the killing of Shias as if the Nigerian constitution has legalised them to kill us with impunity.
"It is therefore obvious that the Nigerian government is busy trying to shield its woeful failure to deliver dividends of democracy to the electorates who queued under searing sun to bring it to power, and they are surreptitiously working behind the scene to promote anti-Shia sentiments in order to disguise its failure and also divert our focus on #Free_Zakzaky campaign.
"No amount of illegal ban, persecution and killings can stop us from calling for the release of our supreme leader. We have in fact taken to the streets today in our large number to reiterate our demands for the release of our leader, his wife and hundreds of our members who are being detained without trial."
