Court orders unconditional release of El-Zakyzaky

Stories by Vivian Okejeme
Abuja

Justice Gabriel Kolawole of a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, has ordered the unconditional release of detained leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) also known as the Shi’ites, Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky and his wife, Malami Zeenat, to a new accommodation within 45 days.
Justice Kolawole held that the continued detention of the applicant without trial amounted to gross violation of his constitutionally guaranteed rights.
The court went further to award N25million damages each to the El-Zakzaky and his wife against the federal government, just as it ordered the construction of a new accommodation for El-Zakzaky’s family in any part of Kaduna state or the Northern region of their choice.
Justice Kolawole dismissed federal government’s position that the applicant and his wife were under protective custody.

The Shi’ite leader who has been in detention since December 14, 2015, applied for the enforcement of his fundamental rights to life, personal liberty, dignity of human person, right to private and family life and private property.
His arrest and detention followed a clash between members of the sect and soldiers attached to the Chief of Army Staff, Major General Tukur Buratai, at Zaria, Kaduna state.
The applicant, among others, prayed the court to declare that, “the detention of the applicant at Abuja by the respondents since December 14, 2015, is illegal and unconstitutional as it violates his fundamental rights to personal liberty as enshrined in section 35 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, and Article 6 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act (CAP A10), Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.”