Leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky, yesterday urged the federal government and security agencies should protect Nigerians and not abuse constitutional powers.
Speaking at the closing ceremony of Nisfu Sha’aban by Hurras (guards) in Zaria, he said government must stop violation of fundamental human rights.
He added that the nation’s security operatives should have done the same rather than the constant killing of innocent citizens in a shameful display of strength. He said: “We are the heroes of the society. Power is never measured by how best you can use the gun on people, but by how best you serve them and your compassion to them.”
Zakzaky enumerated some of the volunteer projects executed by the movement to include traffic control, fire fighting, healthcare and security services, peace-keeping and many more selfless services that saved lives.
He regretted that “all these unpaid services offered by the guards were unnoticed by some sections of the society, because of the negative perception cast on the group.”
He said the Hurras was a group of volunteers who took it upon themselves to offer their lives for a better society through communal work that encompassed a lot of projects, even though they were better known at security control and orderly functions.
On the security presence around his residence on Saturday night, Zakzaky said they were at his residence with the obvious intent to kill.
He said the assassins were foreign military personnel who had come to Nigeria under the pretext of combating terrorism and to secure the abducted Chibok girls.
He added that they came in six vehicles combat ready and fully masked, and that they had planned to lay ambush and open fire on his convoy on the way home from Nisf Sha’aban commemoration on Saturday night, but the rain distorted their plan.
Zakzaky said the objective of the U.S. security operatives and their allies in Nigeria was not to rescue the abducted girls, but to silence the Islamic movement which had remained the only voice contrary to their actions.
“They think they can do everything and no expect everyone to keep silence. We can never be intimated into silence. This is why we became their target.”
