From Noah Ebije, Kaduna
The Southern Kaduna People’s Union (SOKAPU) has expressed the hope that the release of the leader of Shiites, Ibrahim El-Zakzaky and his wife, Zeenat by Kaduna State High Court, would hasten the release of Southern Kaduna people that have been in detention for months after they were arrested by the state government. El-Zakzaky and his wife were freed penultimate Wednesday after a six-year incarceration and trial over allegations of culpable homicide, unlawful assembly, and public peace distance, among others.
Spokesman of SOKAPU, Luka Binniyat, reacting to El-Zakzaky’s release in a statement, said “We are happy that the judiciary stood by truth, conscience and justice.
“The discharge and acquittal of Shieik Zakzaky and his wife after over five years of unlawful detention and trial is one of several other acquittals of low and high profile indigenes and residents of Kaduna state who have annoyed Governor Nasir el-Rufai over one issue or the other and sent to prison.
“We rejoice with the Sheik over his new found freedom and congratulate the judge for his courage and forthrightness in that landmark judgement.
“SOKAPU is indeed very elated by this development in the same way we celebrated in 2019 the discharge and acquittal of the highly respected Southern Kaduna elder statesman, the Wazirin Adara, Engr Bawa Magani, who is the second-in-command to the 2018 assassinated traditional ruler of Adara Chiefdom – the second biggest traditional Council in Kaduna State after Zaria Emirate. “He was arrested like a common thief with eight of the most high ranking elders of Adara land, including a retired Police Commissioner and slammed in Kaduna prison for 120 days in the same circumstances that Zakzaky was jailed.
“Their arrest came during the peak of the mass slaughter of Adara natives and the destruction of their villages by those who surviving victims always identify as armed Fulani herdsmen.”