The Islamic Movement in Nigeria has condemned what it described as Governor Nasir el-Rufai’s strong arm tactics’ against the peaceful protests by the Nigeria Labour Congress during the five days warning protest in Kaduna State.
It said it is unfortunate how the governor declared the NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, and 17 others wanted for alleged economic sabotage and attacks on public infrastructure and even announced a handsome reward for anyone who could give information on the whereabouts.
The IMN said el-Rufai’s strong arm tactics were not new to it as the same has been deployed against its members since its struggle for justice to free its Leader, Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky, from 2016 to date.
It also decried the alleged hiring of armed thugs with knives, sticks and stones to attack the peaceful protesters in Kaduna on Tuesday.
“If not that the police and the DSS in Kaduna had apprehended some of the sponsored thugs, thereby protecting protesters and averting bloodshed, the story would have been different by now,” it said.
However, the IMN said apprehending these thugs without bringing them and their sponsors to book will only be a waste of state resources.
It said their sponsors must be exposed and brought to book.
In a statement by Ibrahim Musa, the President, IMN’s Media Forum, the Movement alleged that the Kaduna State Government resorted to vile propaganda by likening the NLC’s actions to those of bandits.
Again, the Movement said el-Rufai had made similar pronouncements against it when it declared it as worse than Boko Haram.
“His crude tactics has always been to black-paint innocent citizens to deceptively sway public support to his side,” Musa said.
The Movement also described Governor el-Rufai’s sack of the Kaduna Polytechnic lecturers and nurses below Grade Level 14 for participating in the strike as “undemocratic and extremely autocratic”.