IMN Celebrates As Court Frees El-Zakzaky, Wife After Six-Year Detention

The Kaduna State High Court, on Wednesday, discharged and acquitted the embattled leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, also known as Shi’ites, Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky and his wife, Zeenat, who had been standing trial since December 2015.

Their detention and subsequent trial followed a clash between the convoy of the then Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, and members of the sect in Zaria, which left several dead.

In the eight-hour judgment, Justice Gideon Kurada upheld the no case submission filled by the Shi’ite leader and his wife.

They were charged with culpable homicide, disruption of public peace and unlawful assembly, among others, by the Kaduna State Government.

Justice Kurada had adjourned ruling in the case till Wednesday after the prosecution and defence counsel addressed the court on the no case submission on March 31.

The lead counsel for El-Zakzaky and his wife, Femi Falana, SAN, had prayed the court to rule in favour of his clients.

The lead prosecution counsel, Mr Dari Bayero, had at the close of submission prayed the court to sentence the defendants.

However, on Wednesday, Justice Kurada ruled that the prosecution team failed to establish a prima facie case against the IMN leader and the wife.

El-Zakzaky and Zeenat had arrived at the court around 9.08am amid tight security.

And by 5pm, the court ordered the immediate release of the couple from detention.

After the ruling, El-Zakzaky was immediately driven out of the court premises alongside his lead counsel, Falana.

Ruling victory for perseverance, says IMN

Meanwhile, the IMN hailed the judgment, which it noted had not only vindicated the movement, “but it is certainly a victory for perseverance in the face of extreme persecution by the Nigerian government.”

-Punch