Speaking to newsmen yesterday in Birnin Kebbi, Bello said that the Shiite was appealing to President Muhammadu Buhari to released their leader who was arrested in Zaria for exercising his fundamental rights to free association, Guardian reported.
Members of the group had clashed with officers of the Nigeria Army in Zaria, which claimed many lives and which led to the arrest of their leader.
Meanwhile, the Kebbi State House Assembly has given the immediate past governor of the state, Usman Nasamu Dakingari and the six contractors handling the construction of the Ahmadu Bello International Airport, Birnin Kebbi three weeks to appear before it to explained their roles in the inflation of the contract sum to N10.6 billon.
Addressing newsmen yesterday, the House Committee Chairman on Information, Hon. Salihu Dangoje said the governor should appear to explain the award of the contract and the release of the funds which was allegedly inflated, adding that the House had set up a special investigation committee on the contract for the upgrading of the Airport.
He added that the House set up a special investigation committee on the contracts awarded for the upgrading of the airport in 2014 saying the committee’s report was submitted on March 30, 2017 by its Chairman, Hon. Muhammad Buhari Aliero, who is also the Deputy Speaker with 12 members.
The prominent cleric and his wife were taken into custody on December 14, 2115, after deadly clashes between the supporters of the IMN movement and Nigerian troops.
Nearly 350 members of the Shia movement were killed in the clashes. The sheikh was brutally injured and his house was reportedly destroyed by the army in the incident.
The judge said he had given 45 days for authorities to provide new accommodation for the Zakzaky family. The accommodation is to be in the town of Zaria, Kaduna state, where the family were detained, or in other parts of the state or alternatively any other part of northern Nigeria.
Kolawole said the State Security Service would pay each of Sheikh Zakzaky and his wife $78,984 in compensation for the violation of their rights by being held in unlawful custody for nearly a year.
Nearly 100 IMN supporters were killed when Nigerian forces fired live rounds and tear gas at mourners during a peaceful march ahead of the Arbaeen mourning rituals, which mark 40 days after the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Hussein (AS), the third Shia Imam. Authorities also destroyed a number of buildings belonging to the IMN.
The Nigerian government has stepped up its crackdown on the IMN since the December 2015 deadly incident.
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