Zakzaky: GOC accused of bribing Islamic groups, scholars with N.5m

The Islamic Movement in Nigeria has accused the General Officer Commanding, 1 Mechanized Division of the Nigerian Army, Major General Adeniyi Oyebade, of meeting with members of some Islamic sects and some Muslim chieftaincy title holders in Kaduna with the aim of convincing them of the justification of the killing over 1,000 members of the Islamic Movement.
Oyebade was said to have given those who attended the meeting a gratification of N500,000.
The meeting was said to have held on January 14, 2016.
The IMN said Oyebade carefully selected the Wahabi sect scholars that have always rivalled the IMN, which is a Shiite sect, and operated campaigns of calumny and concocted lies against it, to commune in finding ways to wipe out the Islamic Movement and seek their support.
He was alleged to have constructed a story to convince the scholars and chiefs that the Army acted angelic and that he pleaded with the members of the Movement all through to surrender for a cordon and search operation, which the IMN resisted.
The statement by the IMN added: “We wish to state here that he as a Christian, the GOC himself is not safe from those religious bigots he is communing with to fight Shi’ites because of their of religious intolerance and this could be supported with the statement made to the press after the meeting by Sheikh Zakzaky’s elder brother, Sani Yaqoub, who said the Shi’ites, Jews, and Christians are of the same ilk.
“The IMN needs not respond to the malice and concoctions in the GOC’s tale of the unfortunate killing spree he spare-headed on 12-14th of December 2015 because everything is now clear to the world that the attack was pre-planned and deliberate and no amount of fabrications could change that.
“Hence, the Army’s claim that it has no issues with the IMN is deceptive because the blood of 34 members of the Movement was hanging on the Army already barely a year before it launched its second attack where it killed over 1000 unarmed members of the Movement, including innocent women and children.
“More so, the GOC must have been out of touch with the recent events where the generality of people, both home and abroad have condemned the propaganda movie he showed to the scholars, created to demonize the IMN as a potential security threat as simply a way of seeking cover-up and justifying the acts of extra-judicial killings.
“Since the Army has announced that it has no apology for killing unarmed men, women and children of the IMN, and that it had no issues with the IMN, we challenge the government and the Army to summon courage and release the revered leader of the Movement, His Eminence, Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky, other members of the Movement and also hand over the corpses of those they murdered.”
The IMN statement was signed by the President of its Media Forum, Ibrahim Musa.