“As followers of Sheik Ibraheem El-Zakzaky, we shall never submit ourselves to the dictates of the Nigerian government even if our own lives will be taken away by the forces of its security agents.” Sheik Sanusi Abdulkadir Koki, IMN’s newest leader.
Truly God loves Nigeria. Despite months of desperation to conceal the evil plot of Nigerian Shiites on Nigeria, by the sect leaders and their international allies, the truth has surfaced irrepressibly. Security agents in Nigeria need no further evidence greater than this bold, verbal affront on the sovereignty of Nigeria to unambiguously dissect the destructively, possessive mindset of Nigerian Shiites as the newest wing of terrorism in the country.
The treacherous comments were made in Kano by the newest leader of the Shiites in Nigeria or the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), Sheik Sanusi Abdulkadir Koki. The remarks were made during the burial of some dead members from the sect’s induced clashes with the Police recently in Kano state, which left some officers dead.
Sheik Koki described the sect’s dead members as martyrs who have in infamy adhered to “the very footsteps of Imam Husain (AS) who was massacred alongside his followers, for not surrendering himself to the dictates, wish and whims of Yazid Bin Mu’awuya.” He further prodded the sect members never to subject themselves to the dictates of the laws of the Federation of Nigeria.
For the Shiites, it is a history of unjust rebellion against the state or constituted authority, from wherever the sect evolved. And its adherents anywhere in the world are neck-deep into this aberration unknown in decent climes.
But Nigerians know that the IMN is not a registered organization in Nigeria, despite its near 40 years of existence in the country. And recently, the criminal activities of the sect earned it a lawful ban in Nigeria, through the Kaduna state government, where the sect’s headquarters is domiciled. The ban has also been replicated in Kano state.
The doubt that has just been cleared is the sect’s self-proclamation of its status as Nigeria’s latest brand of terrorists after the defeated Boko Haram Terrorists (BHTs). And the Nigerian Shiites are making no pretenses about its determination to outshine the cruelty of BHTs in violent assault on the Nigerian state.
Nigerian Shiites have displayed traits of sects that eventually mutate into terror groups in the country. In 2009 when BHTs surfaced under the leadership of Yusuf Mohammed, their first target was security agents, especially the police. In the early eighties, the notorious Maitatsine sect led by a 1945 Cameroonian migrant into Kano city, Alhaji Mohammed (Muhammadu) Marwa also began violent campaigns by openly traducing laws of the state and attacking security agents who enforced compliance.
Marwa’s inciting preachments to followers were overlooked and underrated for years, just like the Shiites have gathered momentum, for more than three decades and now stepping out to courageously challenge the authority of the Nigerian state.
In flaunted flags of dishonor, the Nigerian Shiites have indeed exuded every sign of a sect, which is not only irreligious, but its members’ as budding terrorists nourished from afar. They have rejected compliance with every law and government’s directive. They are ever ready to violently confront the state to impose their own laws on the state.
Each time Nigerian Shiites storm the streets / roads with “religious” processions, they are armed to the teeth with assorted primitive, but dangerous weapons, which advertise them as nothing else, other than venomous insurgents on the prowl. It has never been a co-incidence to find Shiites members brandish weapons like catapults, stones, swords, clubs, bows and arrows, dane guns, leopard skins, as bulletproof vests and powdered charms during all their processions.
It is this unprovoked inclination to violence by Nigerian Shiites that led to the violent attack on the convoy of the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen. Yusuf Buratai in Zaria, Kaduna state, in December 2015. The latest incidence of the Shiites brutal confrontation of the police in Kano, which resulted in the death and injuries of some police officers is the unmistaken affirmation of the sect members’ as terrorists, disguised as religious worshippers’.
Linked to Iran, founders of ISIS, the world’s most dangerous terror sect, Nigerian Shiites delight in breach of public peace. Each time, the Shiites step out, tension in the country is heightened and their conduct is always in negation of all certified Islamic norms.
But more than anything else, what has bolstered the Nigerian Shiites to violently lay siege on parts of Nigeria is the active support it receives from the Republic of Iran.
The United Nations (UN) is now silent on the matter, but Iran as a UN-member nation has continued to secretly plot the complete destruction of Nigeria. Iran has ultimately destabilized Nigeria, by its years of sponsorship of terror sects in the country. It has not veiled its funding of BHTs which held Nigeria to the jugular, until recently when the Nigerian military overpowered it.
Factional leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau speaks glowing of the terror sect’s affinity to Iran. The emergence of another Boko Haram factional leader, Abu Musab al Barnawi was also appointed by the ISIS of Iran. The recently redeployed Iranian Ambassador to Nigeria, Saeed Koozechi had openly threatened Nigeria and undermined the country’s laws by his provoking outbursts that Nigeria was playing with fire with the continued detention of IMN’s leader, Shiek Ibraheem El-Zakzaky.
Therefore, when another Nigerian Shiites leader Sanusi Koki boldly poked his members to float Nigerian laws and disregard the Nigerian government, the shadows of Iran played out glaringly and significantly. However, what the Shiites have failed to understand is that no country in the world is governed without laws. And Nigeria is not an exception. Iran’s backing and encouragement of a terrorists’ sect to challenge the sovereignty of the country is a direct call to Nigerians to defend same.
Nigeria does not need any congregation of Shiites in the country. The IMN members are free to migrate to Iran to practice their detestable religious doctrines, blended with terrorism. As the Nigerian Shiites declare their offensive on Nigeria, what is certain is that the country cannot surrender its sovereignty to any sect. The Shiites cannot continue to needlessly kill Nigeria’s security agents, especially the Police. Iran should know that the resolve to defend the Nigerian Police and other security agents from the dark forces and cruelty of the Nigerian Shiites cannot be compromised.
With Koki’s riot act to Shiites members, time has come for Nigerian government to crackdown on these Shiites outlaws before their international human rights allies like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International manifest their supportive conspiracy of the Shiites umbrage.
Even in Iran laws exist and violators are penalized. Iran is quite displeased with Nigeria’s defeat of BHTs, which explains the renewed attention to breed another set of terrorists in the Nigerian Shiites to once again snatch the peace and respite Nigerians currently enjoy. In Shiites, Nigeria is on the verge of a new wave of terror and the FGN should henceforth, cease treating the issue with levity.
Onoja writes from the Centre Against Terrorism and Extremism, Jos.
Comments