Shiite sect the Islamic Movement in Nigeria plans moving its headquarters to Potiskum in response to harassment

SHIITE movement the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) is planning to relocate its national headquarters to the Yobe State city of Potiskum where it has a lot of followers in response to increased police harassment across the country.

Earlier this month, the IMN fought running battles with the security forces in Abuja and accused the Nigerian Army of opening fire on unarmed protesters, killing about 40 and arresting a further 400 of its members. IMN had held protests in Abuja and several other cities demanding the release of its spiritual leader Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky.

In 2015, Sheikh El-Zakzaky was arrested after his members had a confrontation with the motorcade of the chief of army staff, Lt General Tukur Buratai, in Zaria, Kaduna State and has been in detention since. Following the clampdown after the latest protests, IMN is now planning to locate to Potiskum according to the Yobe State police commissioner Sunmonu Abdulmaliki.

He added that intelligence gathered showed an influx of Shiite members into the densely populated town of Potiskum. According to Mr Abdulmaliki, it has been observed that the group residing in the state are not Shiites per se but they could be called the El-Zakzaky group.

Mr Abdulmaliki said: “They are not banned in Yobe State, so we are monitoring their activities and proactively stem what could be a crisis despite the recent clash between members of the sect and operatives of the Joint Task Force (JTF). I must tell you that there is hardly any time they are caught they don’t find drugs with them and arms and I don’t think Islam allows that.

“My appeal to the Shiite members is to be law abiding, we are for everybody as long as you are law abiding. We monitor them through intelligence we get their dossier and then checkmate them before anything happens.”

In addition, he stated that the police command in conjunction with other security agencies, especially the State Security Service, the military and the Civil Defence Corps was able to checkmate the Shiites effectively in Potiskum. Mr Abdulmaliki also stressed that the police have a legal and constitutional way of dealing with whoever is performing anything illegally, saying that the command will not hesitate to do exactly as the law stated without falling foul of the laws of the land and trampling on anybody’s right.

On September, 21, one person was killed with three others injured following a clash between members of the Shiite group and JTF operatives during the Ashura procession in Potiskum town. Potiskum is about 100km away from Damaturu, the Yobe State capital, and is the most populated local government area in the state with a large concentration of Shiites.