Senior Advocate of Nigeria: Chief of Army Staff Buratai Should Be Prosecuted Over Attack on Islamic Movement & Sheikh Zakzaky

Femi Falana, a famous Lagos lawyer and a human rights activist, has said that soldiers and Chief of Army Staff Tukur Buratai should be prosecuted over the attack on the Shi’ite movement and their leader, Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky in Kaduna state.

At least 200 and by some accounts as many as 1000 Shia Muslims were massacred by the Nigerian army under command of Chief of Army Staff Lt. General Buratai on December 12th to 13th.

Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, said in a statement: “Assuming that the Shi’ite members actually blocked the road, why was the nuisance not reported to the police? Are the authorities of the Nigerian Army above the law of the land?”

“The army authorities have refused to release the bodies of those who were massacred to their families for burial while the personal physicians of the injured ones and their family members have been denied access to them.”

The lawyer added that about 300 people without allowing to be visited had been taken to a Magistrate Court over the past two days on the basis of First Information Reports.

Resign Now, Political Party Tells Buratai

The Socialist Party of Nigeria has advised the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.Gen Tukur Buratai, to immediately resign following the massacre of members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria by soldiers in Zaria, Kaduna.

The Socialist Party of Nigeria said this in a statement by its spokesperson, Segun Sango that; “We hold that the Chief of Army Staff, General Barutai, has shown that the Nigerian Army under his leadership is an anti-democratic and repressive army and we demand his immediate resignation. We call on the entire trade union movement to stage mass protests to demand an end to all these undemocratic attacks and in particular to call for the immediate resignation of the army boss.”