Residents of Zaria, Kaduna State, yesterday accused leader of the Shiite Movement in Nigeria, Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky of running a parallel government, through which he brought untold hardship on them for over 20 years.

The residents called on the Federal Government to as a matter of urgency ban the Zakzaky-led Islamic movement from their communities.

Addressing a press conference in Kaduna, the spokesperson of the affected Zaria communities, Idris Mohammed Baba, alleged that members of the Shiite sect had held people in Zaria and Sabon Gari local government areas of the state hostage with impunity while they ran the parallel government in the country.

Baba also alleged that the Shiites had in May 2015, declared 24 youths persona non grata for challenging their activities in Gyellesu community where Zakzaky resides.

Narrating their ordeals in the hands of the Shiite followers for over 20 years in Zaria, Baba said, “my experience with Shiite followers is disastrous and terrible. At a point, Shiite boys threatened to kill me. There is one notorious Shiite boy call Ali, he is the leader of El-Zakzaky’s notorious boys who accompany him anywhere he goes.”

The spokesperson said members of the community were happy with the military action against the Shiite’s movement in Zaria about a fortnight ago because “we have fresh air now blowing in our areas.”

“Before, we couldn’t grant an interview to the world about the Shiite activities but now, we are sleeping with our two eyes closed. As a community, we wrote letters to the governments about the ungodly activities of the Shiites but no single action was taken. We no longer report Shiites to the police because they will never honour police or security invitation.

“These Shiites are authority unto themselves; they don’t respect authority, security and so on. We are Muslims but we discovered that Shiites activities are contrary to Islam. They carry dangerous weapons openly molesting innocent people in our areas. Human rights bodies should also look into our pains by Shiite sect,” he stated.

Alhaji Saidu Garba, one of the Gyallesu elders who also addressed journalists, lamented that the once booming economic activities in the area had been crippled due to the activities of members of the Shiite sect in the area.

According to Garba, “after El-Zakzaky was released from detention in 1999, he came and settled in Gyallesu and since then, there is no peace in our area.

“We thank Allah for touching the heart of government and the military for liberating us from Shiites untold hardship.

“Shiites killed many of our people who challenged their activities, we buried them and we couldn’t talk to the world because of their threat. We were living like slaves in our own land where the Shiite leader, Sheikh El-Zakzaky came and met us. We residents of Gyallesu are calling on the Federal government to ban Shiite movement in our community and Kaduna state as a whole. Government should put a stop to the Shiite’s ungodly activities in our area,” he said.

Credit: Leadership