Some women in Kaduna State staged a peaceful protest on Tuesday, January 5, 2016, demanding the immediate release of the detained Shiite leader, Sheik Ibrahim El-Zakzaky.
The leader of Shiite movement in Nigeria is believed to be in the custody of the Nigerian Army, who raided members of the group at their base in Kaduna in December 2015, after they barricaded a convoy of the Chief of Army Staff.
The protesters, who were mainly Muslim women, carried placards with different inscriptions, and asked the government to free El-Zakzaky with immediate effect.
At a press conference also held in Kaduna by the women, they further requested that compensation be paid to victims of the raid by the military.
The women, who stormed Secretariat of the Kaduna State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, said not less than 1,000 members of the sect were brutally killed by the Army.
According to spokesperson of the protesters, Aisha Hassan, the attack was purely a gross violation of Shiite members’ fundamental rights of free association and movement.
Women Protest Detention Of Shiite Leader https://t.co/iqAyY7AgIV