Heavily armed soldiers of Operation Lafiya Dole operating in three trucks have reportedly arrested two members of the Shiite Islamic Movement living in Tsangarwa of Gwaram Local Government of Jigawa State.

“The soldiers initially arrived the town allegedly acting on a tip off and conducted a house-to-house search on members of the Islamic Movement but found nothing incriminating. The soldiers claimed they were tipped that members of the Islamic Movement in the town were piling up arms with a view to taking revenge for the Zaria massacre by the military in December 2015. This ridiculous allegation is clearly a pretence by soldiers to execute their hidden sinister motives,” Ibrahim Musa, President of IMN Media Forum, said in a statement, a copy of which was made available to News Express.

Expressing displeasure over the development, Musa said; “We have always made it clear, times without number, that Sheikh Zakzaky-led Islamic Movement in Nigeria is a peaceful mass Movement, whose forty-year history is devoid of any resort to violence in the pursuit of its objectives. Not even after the murderous mission of the military in Zaria, were arms recovered as attested by the report of the Kaduna state Commission of Inquiry. This is a clear vindication of our position on use of arms, that only the insane would use weapons to propagate ideas rather than positive thinking, reasoning and use of proofs.

“We therefore strongly condemn the military action in strong terms, and call on them to unconditionally release them immediately. They have committed no offense. We also insist that there must not be a repeat of such intimidation anywhere again.”