There was a flow of tears in Maraba, Nasarawa State as the Members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), popularly called Shiites, buried 23 of their members who were killed after the clashed with the Nigerian Army during a protest by the IMN over their detained leader Sheikh Ibraheem El Zakzaky.

Recall that different courts had granted Sheikh El Zakzaky bail in the past, but the government continued detaining him, thereby pushing his followers into an endless protest.

On Sunday, 29th October, the IMN embarked on a trek to mark Arbaeen (fortieth day), which is a mourning period in Islam to mark and commemorate 40 days after Ashura, the tragic day that Tyrant Yazid bn Muawiyyah killed Imam Hussain ibn Ali (AS).

During the trek, they (Shiites) clashed with the Nigerian army and some of them were killed, also the following day, some also embarked on a protest to demand the release of their leader, Sheikh El Zakzaky, they were also killed by the army.

Speaking with Nigerian Tribune, one of the leaders of the IMN Abdullahi Musa said that they were burying a total of 23 of their members murdered by the Nigerian army during their protest in Abuja.

He alleged that their members were killed by Guard Brigade in Abuja when he claimed to take order from President Muhammadu Buhari, and some corpses of their murdered members were still in police custody.

Explaining how their members where killed, Musa said “today (Wednesday) we have about 48 corpses, 9 corpses are still with the government, they have distributed them to various places in Abuja, there are three corpses of our members in Gwagwalada (University of Abuja Teaching Hospital), we went there and we saw them.

“Yesterday (Tuesday), they opened fired on us and killed a lot of people, 6 people were killed, and we have two corpses with us, the police went away with 4 so about 6 people were confirmed dead yesterday (Tuesday), and this attacked of yesterday (Tuesday), happened inside the city of Abuja”.

•Excerpted from Tribune report