One year after a Kaduna State High Court ordered the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to release Sheikh El-Zakzaky’s travel documents, the court verdict is yet to be carried out.
In a judgment delivered by Justice Gideon Kurada of the Kaduna State High Court in 2021, the Judge had ordered for the return of El-Zakzaky’s travel documents and that of his wife.
The historic judgement frees the couple without a single condition attached.
The new call was contained in a statement made available to Blueprint on July 28, 2022, by Dr. Dauda Nalado of the Academic Forum of the Islamic movement.
The group had in the statement demanded for an unconditional removal of the travel ban and release of the couple’s passports.
The group which frowned at continuous seizure of their travel documents further lampoon the current administration over it’s action.
While condemning the government action, Nalado further claimed that by its disposition, the Buhari regime may have placed a travel ban on the freed Sheikh and his wife notwithstanding their critical health challenges.
The statement reads: “We would like to inform the public that in spite of the favourable judgment of Kaduna State High Court delivered by Justice Gideon Kurada on the 28th of July, 2021, the Buhari regime has refused to return or reissue the travel documents of Sheikh El-Zakzaky and his wife.
“The historic judgement frees the couple without a single condition attached. But reliable information reaching us reveals that tyrant Buhari has placed a travel ban on the freed, notwithstanding their critical health challenges.
“It is pertinent to let the public know that the freedom of Sheikh El-Zakzaky and his wife is still on the periphery, cruelly delayed and unlawfully denied.
“The public are fully aware of the 2015 Zaria massacre executed from 12th to 14th December. It was an “all-out-war” to eliminate the Sheikh and dislodge the Islamic movement under his distinguished tutelage.
“The Nigerian Army under Buhari’s direct command invaded the Husainiyyah along Sokoto road, the Dambo-film-village-farmyard-cum-martyrs’ graveyard and Sheikh El-Zakzaky’s Gyallesu residence, all in Zaria.
“They killed his followers in excess of a thousand, and set the house ablaze.
“Against all odds, the prime target, his wife and several other family members survived the arson and all that unprecedentedly brutal attack.
“Yet, no sooner had four soldiers “discovered” the whereabouts of the survivors in a laundry room than they started to rain bullets on them, instantly killing three of his sons, leaving the Sheikh and his wife “waiting to die” from the lethal gunshot wounds, but they are still alive with multiple health complications that could not be treated here in Nigeria, therefore very much in need of urgent medical attention abroad.
“Justice was delayed and prolonged for more than 5 years, but at last the court discharged and acquitted the Sheikh and his wife.
“Following the court triumph, the couple’s immediate preoccupation has been to cater for their medical needs abroad but their passports have been seized and denied for a year now.
“Buhari woefully failed using the barrel of a gun, and equally through trumped-up charges in the court. However, the Buhari-led regime perseveres in its attempt at pushing the contract to kill Sheikh El-Zakzaky to a success by depriving the Sheikh and his wife their travel documents, robbing them of the right to travel overseas for proper medication.
“In view of the foregoing, we demand for unconditional removal of the travel ban and release of the couple’s passports.”
