Leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, IMN, a Shi’ite sect of Islam in Nigeria, Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky, has accused the Federal Government of preventing him and his wife from seeking medical attention abroad, saying the Government has been withholding their passports even with the Court ruling in their favour.
Three months after a Court of competent jurisdiction acquitted him and his wife, Zeenat, of criminal charges, the Federal Government is yet to release their passports.
The couple was also stopped from acquiring fresh international passports to replace the previous ones the security agencies allegedly claimed to have lost.
El-Zakzaky stated this in an interview with Press TV, an Abuja-based Tv station monitored in Lagos.
According to him, they had no intention of fleeing the country.
Narrating his ordeal, the Islamic cleric said his wife is still having bullets lodged in her hips.
“We were shot severally, such shooting that a human being cannot survive. They (security operatives) battered my right side and battered my right eye. Around the head, from the cheek up to the head, they counted about 38 fragments. Also, my wife has gunshot on her stomach and her thigh”, he said.
“They took us to their hospital and somehow removed some of the bullets without putting her under anesthesia. It was later in another hospital that more bullets were removed, and she still has one complete bullet in her body, which found its place in her pelvis. And they said, at that time, they could not remove it.
“Up till now, these fragments release poisons like lead and cadmium. I am still living with some amount of those poisons in my body, including the fragments of bullets. It’s the will of Allah that I’m still alive; because when they tested the level of lead in my body, at one time, it was about 244, which they said a normal human being should contain only 10, but I had 244 in my body. Well, that’s the will of God that I’m alive, anyway.
“On July 28, this year, 2021, we were discharged and acquitted, and we were exonerated from all the eight charges against us. At the end of the day, it was found that none of us committed any offense, and then they were ordered to pay compensation, yet nothing happens. None at all.
“They know that we have a health issue, but we were kept with these difficulties, incarcerated for almost six years. But, by the grace of God, we survived it. Here (in Nigeria), they said they could not remove it, but our doctors, who came from outside the country, studied the situation and said they would be able to remove it.’’
“An order was given by the court of law that we have the right to seek medical assistance outside Nigeria. We were thinking that immediately after we are out of prison, it will not be a matter of days we will leave this country. When we came out, we were hoping to get our passports back.
“Our lawyer, after they ruled that we were discharged, went and begged the presiding judge to give an order that our passports should be released to us because of our health problem.
”The Judge said there was no need for him to give any order because we have no charges. We have been discharged. He said we were entitled to all our property. The court doesn’t have to give orders.
“When we came out, we were thinking in a matter of a week it will be okay for us. But, up till now, the passports have not reached our hand. At one time, the security operatives said they had lost the passports, and they are no longer in their hands.
“So, we took steps to make another one. But, at the end of the day, we were told that “passport flagging” has been placed on us; meaning that the two of us have no right to leave this country. We don’t know what for. At least, officially, they didn’t say it.
“So the matter has not come to an end. We are still, in a way, incarcerated because we are not allowed out of the country for no reason.
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