The Police and members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, IMN , otherwise known as the Shiites, Tuesday engaged in a serious clash with the sect claiming the Police arrested so many of their members while scores of others were injured.
A spokesman of the group in Katsina, Dr Abdulkarim Usman, Abdulmumin told The Nation on telephone that the procession started at about 7.30 am and ended abruptly by 8.30 am because of the intrusion of the Police who fired teargas and shot indiscriminately into the air to disperse them.
Abubakar further admitted that none of their members was killed but that scores of them were injured while several others were arrested by the police.
He said “we divided ourselves into several groups and peacefully were marching through the street around Kofar Marusa area of Katsina when the Police intervened and several of our members were either arrested or injured in the ensuing fracas’’
Meanwhile, the leader of the movement in the state, Malam Yakubu Yahaya told newsmen Tuesday in Katsina, called on Nigerians to understand the movement and its orientation
adding; “we are almajiris under sheik Ibrahim al Zazzaki, he was born in Katsina, our organization and its orientation is for the progress and growth of the religion worldwide, this procession is a yearly activity”
“The organization is not an association but an ideological movement for the common people, but the Government does not want to understand us.”
When contacted, the Spokesman of the State Police Command, Superintendent Gambo Isah refereed to the earlier warning by the command against the proposed street procession, insisting that the command had to ensure the order was fully complied with.
The Nation recalled that the Police had earlier issued a clarification warning to the movement following their planned procession.
The Police also stated that while Muslims are free to commemorate “Ashura” throughout the country along with other Muslims across the world, it, however, insisted that the ban on processions is however applicable to members of the proscribed Islamic Movement in Nigeria only.
Source: The Nation
