Why El-Zakzaky agreed to media parade — Falana

Lagos lawyer and Lagos lawyer and  human rights activist, Mr Femi Falana, SAN, said, yesterday, that leader of Islamic Movement in Nigeria, IMN, Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, agreed to speak to the press under the assumption that his release was imminent.


Falana’s statement came on a day the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, IMN, said it was not placated by the appearance of its detained leader before select journalists in Abuja on Saturday, adding that anything short of his total freedom, in line with the ruling of the court, was unacceptable to them.El-Zakzaky briefly addressed journalists on Saturday to disprove claims that he was dead, saying he was getting better.According to Falana, the Department of State Services, DSS, told the Shi’ites leader that the Federal Government was ready to let him go after over two years in custody.

The lawyer called on the government to, therefore, release him from incarceration without further delay.He said El-Zakzaky had lost his left eye and that government had ignored specialists’ advice that he be taken abroad to save the right eye.Falana said the Shi’ites leader’s wife had been subjected to excruciating pain as some of the bullets deposited in her body on December 14, 2015 during the military invasion of their home in Zaria had not been removed.He said: “Last week, it was widely rumoured in the social media that Sheik Ibraheem El-Zakzaky had died in the illegal custody of the State Security Service. Although I was compelled to dismiss the dangerous rumour via a public statement, I requested the Federal Government to release the Shi’ite leader and his wife for urgent medical attention.“Instead of acceding to my request, the State Security Service misinformed Sheik El-Zakzaky and his wife of the readiness of the Federal Government to release them after a media parade to assure the Shia community that the Sheik is alive and well. Hence, they agreed to the media parade, which lasted for one minute and 20 seconds in an undisclosed detention custody at Abuja.“But contrary to the official claim that the Shi’ite leader is hale and hearty, he is currently wearing a neck collar support, which was procured for him when he fell sometime last December.”