5.9k Share this
Men of the Kaduna State Police Command have reportedly fired gunshots to disperse members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria who gathered at the Central Market to protest the continued detention of their leader, Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky.
It was gathered that the police got wind of the protest and deployed officers to the Sheikh Gumi axis of the Kaduna Central Market to stop the protesters, Daily Trust reports.
As soon as the Shiites sighted the police, who had cordoned the area with their vehicles, they immediately aborted protesting in the area.
Giving an eye-witness account, Halima Ibrahim, said she had just arrived at the market when she heard shots being fired.
“I immediately took cover when I heard the shots and the whole incident caused pandemonium in the market. Later, I was able to muster courage and leave my car, where I was waiting to hear what happened. I was told that police officers came to the market to pick some IMN group members and fired some shots to scare them.
“A customer of mine, Mohammed Yunusa, told me that on Wednesday, some policemen were passing the market in their vehicle on routine duty when IMN members attacked them, they vandalised the vehicle and the occupants had to run for their lives.”
But, a member of IMN, Abdullah Usman, said, “We usually come out every two weeks in protest to remind Nigerians that our leader, Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky and his wife are still being held since 2015. It seems the police got an intelligence report that we will come out to protest because they beat us to our game.
“When we saw that policemen had been deployed to the area of the protest, we decided to suspend the rally and I think to scare us, some policemen moved into the market and fired some shots into the air.
“We then moved to Dan Mani Junction along the Nnamdi Azikiwe road to continue with our protest, but the police had also been deployed there and in the end, we aborted the whole protest to avoid bloodshed.”
Source: saharareporters
