Sheikh el-Zakzaky: Muslim group said to be deadlier than Boko Haram

Wednesday 20 April must be the worst day for followers of the embattled Islamic Movement of Nigeria as the members were painted black and evil  in testimonies given at the Justice Mohammed Garba’s Judicial Commission of Enquiry.

After representatives of the police and DSS in Zaria said members were unruly, a security threat and  a terror to the Zaria community, a spokesman of the Supreme Council of Sharia in Nigeria came to bury the group, saying it is deadlier  than the  Boko Haram insurgents.

The Secretary-General of the SCSN, Mallam Nafiu Baba-Ahmed, stated this while testifying before the commission on Wednesday.

He said the Islamic sect posed greater danger to the corporate existence of Nigeria than the once deadly Boko Haram terrorists.

Baba-Ahmed warned that the inability of the government to deal decisively with the Shiites could spell doom for the country.

He also alleged that there was a link between the Shi’ite leader, Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, and the late leader of Boko Haram, Mohammed Yusuf, saying the two had close relationship in terms of ideological beliefs.

He added that El-Zakzaky and Yusuf had held tenaciously to their beliefs contrary to Islamic principles.

According to the SCSN’s secretary, over the years, the Shi’ites had adopted Boko Haram style of eliminating Islamic clerics perceived to be opposed to their doctrines.

He believed that the fear of the Shiites might have forced some Islamic clerics to stay away from testifying before the panel.

He called on the government to learn from its experience of Boko Haram menace to deal decisively with the Shi’ite group.

Nigeria Police and the Department of State Services (DSS) had  said that the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) wing of the Shiite sect constituted a security threat to the Nigerian nation.

The agencies expressed the view in separate submissions at the on-going public hearing of the Kaduna State Commission of Inquiry into the IMN/Army clash of Dec 12, 2015 in Zaria.