News / Interviews

Nigeria’s detention of Zakzaky unconstitutional: Analyst

Saturday, 23 April 2016 4:25 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 27 April 2016 11:53 AM ]

This file photo shows Shia Muslims rallying in Nigeria to demand the release of Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky. (Photo by AP)

Press TV has conducted an interview with Massoud Shadjareh, the head of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, and Nii Akuetteh, an African policy analyst, to discuss the Nigerian army’s atrocities against Shia Muslims in the northern city of Zaria.

Shadjareh says both the Nigerian army’s killing of hundreds of civilians and the Nigerian government’s response to the catastrophe are “outrageous.”

He said an inquiry by the Nigerian army into the issue is not accurate because, he said, the army, the very institution responsible for the killings, cannot be trusted with an inquiry into the crime.

The fate of Sheikh Ibrahim al-Zakzaky, a prominent Islamic scholar in Nigeria, and his family is not clear after several months since the Zaria massacre, Shadjareh says, adding that they have had no access to lawyers.

He said that, according to the Nigerian constitution, “anyone, after two days of being held, even if they are terrorist, should have access to lawyer and indeed should be charged after three and half months.” There is “no charge [against Zakzaky and the others being held, and] they should be released immediately,” Shadjareh says.

Akuetteh, for his part, believes the report of the Amnesty International is “one side of the story” and this is not the first time that the Nigerian army is being accused of mass killings, so, the Nigerian authorities are going to prepare their side of the story.

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