MEMBERS of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) popularly known as Shiites have lauded the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) for withdrawing its invitation to Nasir El-Rufai, Governor of Kaduna State to speak at its annual general conference scheduled to commence on August 26.
This was contained in a statement the movement sent to the NBA and made available to The ICIR by Ibrahim Musato, IMN’s spokesperson.
The National Executive Council (NEC) of the NBA on Thursday had withdrawn the invitation to the governor to speak at the conference following a protest by some members of the Bar that the invitation be withdrawn.
The IMN in its letter to the NBA cited El-Rufai’s disrespect for the rule of Law and blatant abuses of fundamental human rights, noting that he is the most unsuitable person to contribute in the NBA conference on legal matters.
“El-Rufai has been an agent of impunity and division who supports extra-judicial killings and building of mass graves,” IMN said.
“He, in collaboration with officers of the Nigerian Army, attacked members of the Islamic Movement, without recourse to law, leading to the gruesome extrajudicial murder of at least 347 members of the Movement (by the government’s own admission) in December 2015 and hurriedly buried them in mass graves.
“Despite the open confession by the Secretary to the Kaduna State Government, Alhaji Lawal Balarabe Abbas before a Judicial Commission of Inquiry, governor Elrufai has refused to prosecute the criminal elements who perpetrated these crimes, but rather paradoxically filed charges of conspiracy and culpable homicide against over 250 members of the IMN at Kaduna state high courts.
“Although the Kaduna high courts have since discharged and acquitted all of them, governor Elrufai has continued to seek further ways to subjugate and persecute members and leadership of the Movement in contravention of his oath of office to “do right to all manners of people according to law, without fear or favour, affection or ill-will,” it added.
Before the NBA withdrawal, The ICIR reported on Wednesday how more than 400 people had signed an online petition barely 24 hours after some lawyers requested NBA to exclude El-Rufai from speaking at the conference.
A petition which also generated about 180 people in support for the inclusion of the governor in the conference was also signed.
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