Stop The Attacks On Shi’ites
Reports from Kaduna yesterday said confusion enveloped many parts of the city when youths belonging to the Sunni Muslim majority again attacked members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria [IMN], popularly known as Shi’ites. Panic gripped residents in city quarters such as Tudun Wada, Kinkinau, Kabala West, Unguwar Mu’azu and other communities along the Nnamdi Azikiwe bypass road. Trouble was said to have erupted when the Shi’ites placed their flag and started sweeping the premises of their leader Mukhtar Sahabi’s house, which was burnt last Wednesday.
Yesterday’s events in Kaduna were particularly troubling because they suggested that the troubles that engulfed several cities and towns all across Northern Nigeria last Wednesday have not yet abated and could continue into the future. This must not be allowed to happen. Last Wednesday’s events were dastardly and heinous and all hands must be on deck to bring them to a speedy end.
It all began when the Shi’ites attempted to hold their annual procession to mark Ashura. A week earlier, the Kaduna State Government had banned IMN by declaring it to be an unlawful society. It said IMN is not registered with the authorities and its members routinely breach the law and cause inconveniences to others during their activities. KDSG’s banning order was rejected by IMN, which asserted its members’ constitutional freedom of religious practice. Even though we have our doubts about the propriety and legality of the ban, we expect a law abiding group to contest the ban in court. Alternatively, IMN could engage the Kaduna State Government in dialogue and reform its practices that so often bring it into conflict with the law.
Instead, IMN decided to defy the order in Kaduna State and proceed with its Ashura procession. Even though IMN was not banned in their states, police commands in several states such as Katsina, Kano and Kebbi, in addition to Kaduna, banned the Shi’ite procession but the group defied all of them and went ahead with its march. We condemn IMN’s open defiance of the law, the very acts which have attracted so much hostility to it from communities all over the North. It was also this kind of mindless mindset that led to Shi’ite youths’ blocking the path of Army Chief Lt General Tukur Buratai in Zaria last December, which led to the death of hundreds of sect members in subsequent military operations.
Condemnable though the Shi’ites’ defiance of the law was last Wednesday, what happened next was even more heinous and it threatened to create a dangerous region-wide civil war between the minority Shi’ites and the majority Sunni community. While security agents tried in many states to prevent the Shi’ite processions, youths took it upon themselves to attack them in many cities and towns. In Kaduna, youths killed and wounded some Shi’ites and burnt their local leader Mukhtar Sahabi’s house in Tudun Wada. They also demolished IMN’s Islamic centre. Many more IMN members were killed and wounded in Sokoto, Funtua and Katsina when similar attacks took place. Though there were no reported fatalities in Kano and Jos, IMN members were also attacked there and their school was razed down in Jos.
IMN later said in a statement that at least 13 of its members were killed in those cities during the commemoration of Ashura. President of IMN’s media forum Ibrahim Musa said its members were attacked by a combined force of security agents “and some others dressed as hoodlums as well as paid thugs escorting them.” According to him, “the processions of the martyrdom of Imam Husain started peacefully” but policemen moved in to stop them. They then fired tear gas, injured and arrested many marchers, and were also joined by youths to attack the processions. IMN said it nevertheless conducted peaceful Ashura processions in Yola, Suleja, Potiskum, Bauchi, Gombe and Lafia.
Even though IMN likes to emphasise the peaceful nature of its marches, this argument falls flat in the face of their blatantly illegal nature, since police authorities have banned them and warned the group not to hold the marches. Yet, it was very strange indeed that what looked like spontaneous attacks on the marchers by youths should take place in so many cities and with such lethal results. No doubt the depth of feeling against the Shi’ites in the majority Sunni community is considerable but it has never led to such spontaneous attacks across the whole region. We urge the authorities to probe the allegation that someone organised the attacks. If found to be true, such person, persons or agency should be severely punished because they have caused undue losses of lives and created a dangerous precedent for inter-communal peace and harmony in the North.
We regret to observe that the Kaduna State Government’s action in declaring the sect to be unlawful at the least created the atmosphere for last Wednesday’s dastardly events. The ban was not part of a government white paper on the report of the Justice Mohammed Garba judicial commission that investigated last December’s ugly events. While the state government does have a right and duty to see to security within its domain, maximum caution ought to be exercised where the Shi’ites are concerned. This is because they are reported to number in the millions and are to be found in every part of the North. Even though the Shi’ites have a general law-breaking disposition, they did not take up arms against the Nigerian state, as Boko Haram did. Nor do we see the efficacy of banning them in Kaduna State if they can operate legally in other states.
We urge the authorities to come down heavily and stamp out this dangerous practice of youths taking the law into their own hands to kill other citizens. It is heinous and dastardly and totally unworthy of a civilised country.