Femi Adi/ Kaduna

Sheikh el-Zakzaky: unreachable

Three weeks after the army arrested and detained, Sheikh Ibraheem eE-Zakzaky,   the leader of  the Zaria based Islamic Movement of Nigeria, popular known as the  Shiite sect, members have voiced out their concern about his whereabouts.

El-Zakzaky said to have been ordered remanded by a Kaduna magistrate court could not be found in prison. And the police and the army are not forthcoming about where he is being kept.

His whereabouts is not the only concern of his followers: they are also worried about the wife. The couple has been incommunicado since 13 December.

Spokesman of  the Shiite sect , Ibraheem Musa, said since  the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Tukur Buratai  announced  on 18 December  that  El-Zakzaky had been transferred from the army to appropriate authorities for prosecution, no information about  his place of detention or  the hospital he has been taken for treatment. El-Zakzaky was reportedly shot by the soldiers who stormed his residence on 13 December.

Musa said they the sect members were shocked when the Inspector General of Police also denied  a committee of National Supreme Council for Islamic affairs NSCIA access to him.

Musa also recalled a statement credited to the Police Public relations officer, Olabisi Kolawole, who told some newspapers that El-Zakzaky had been charged to court and remanded in prison.

But according to Musa,  the Controller of Kaduna Prisons, Abubakar Argungu, denied he was in their custody.

” This smacks of deceit, conspiracy and out right manipulation of the public’s view of the army’s massacre in Zaria.”

“Where is Sheikh Zakzaky and why has he been denied his constitutional rights to an attorney, bail and visitation?” Musa added.

The Islamic Movement demanded unimpeded access to El Zakzaky, if truly government wanted a peaceful resolution of the Zaria crisis, which he said  the army initiated and executed.

” First and foremost, his first family members and leading brothers of the Islamic Movement should have met him in the company of his Doctor by now, since he was shot by the soldiers when they attacked his residence. We are highly agitated by this seeming needless incommunicado the Sheikh has been placed in, ” he said.