The Shi’ites have threatened to sue the Federal Government and the Nigerian Army if their members, including no fewer than 60 minors, allegedly arrested and detained are not released.
A team of lawyers, led by Bala Dakum and Yushau Uthman, made this known at a press conference they addressed on Friday in Abuja.
It would be recalled that on March 28, 2025, members of the Islamic group while on a peaceful procession to mark the International Quds Day, allegedly came under attack by the officers of the Nigerian Army.
Reacting at the briefing, Dakum alleged that about 26 persons were allegedly shot dead during the incident by the security officers.
He said: “We are compelled to address you this evening due to the recent avoidable but unfortunate brutal attack on our clients (the Shiites Muslim faithfuls).
“Our clients came out on 28th March, 2025 to commemorate their annual international Quds day like their counterparts across the globe.
“While peacefully carrying out their procession in Banex Area, Wuse Il, Abuja in their thousands, they unexpectedly and surprisingly came across a group of armed soldiers who without any provocation started firing live ammunition at them.
“In the cause of this inhumane, callous, cruel, barbaric and most horrific attack on our clients, about 26 persons lost their lives, over 30 persons sustained various degrees of life threatening injuries and about 274 were arrested by the soldiers.
“Our clients were later handed over to the Nigeria Police Force who took them to the now defunct infamous SARS in Abattoir, Garki, Abuja where they were detained under very harsh and dehumanising conditions.
“Even in their debilitating and terrible conditions, they were coerced into writing or signing statements at the police cell in the absence of their lawyers contrary to the provisions of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015.
“Among the persons arrested and detained were over 60 minors who have been kept in the same cell with persons suspected to have been involved in heinous crimes contrary to all norms, values provisions of ACJA 2015 and Child Rights Act.”
The lawyer also said that despite several appeals, the police are yet to release corpses of persons who were brutally killed by the soldiers.
Dakum added: “The corpses are now deposited in secret hospitals, which is against Islamic rites that provide for prompt and immediate burial of deceased persons.
“This, we must say, is strange, knowing that the dead bodies cannot be investigated or tried.
“The public will recall that this is one of the countless attacks on our clients which is gradually becoming the norm among the security agencies.
“It is pertinent to note that on all occasions when our clients carried out their processions in Abuja or any part of this country without the involvement of the security agencies, it has always been peaceful.
“Even on the said 28th Day of March, 2025 when our clients were killed here in Abuja, all other procession across the country were peaceful.
“The world must know that our clients in Nigeria have been under attack for over 11 years.
“It suffices to submit that there is a grand plan by the Nigerian government to permanently deprive our clients of their rights to freedom of worship, association and expression which are all guaranteed under the Nigerian constitution and the international charter on human and people’s rights.”
Dakum while fielding questions therefore said that if their demand on the release of their members, including the minors, is not met, they would explore the legal means to get them released.
He said: “This is the only option we can use, we cannot use force.
“We have to use the legal way by going to court.
“But we pray that while counsel prevail they would release them within the shortest time, particularly those that are injured and the children among them, in as much as we want all of them released.”
Also speaking on the members who lost their lives and are allegedly being kept in hospitals, the lawyer said they will equally challenge this in court if the security agencies refused to release the corpses for burial in accordance with the Islamic rites.
Dakum added: “Like in the past when our clients were killed, what we normally do is to approach the court when we apply to the police for the release of these corpses and they refuse to comply.
“We have done that severally and the court, in its wisdom, always grants us judgment.
“So we will equally go the same way if they refuse to do it because they deserve immediate burial.
“These people cannot be tried as we said and they cannot be investigated so why keep their corpses?
“They are Muslims, which everybody knows they were not even supposed to be kept.
“They were supposed to be buried immediately.
“We know it is a deliberate way to psychologically punish our clients again by the security agencies.”
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