Residents of Zaria in Kaduna state, on Saturday, December 26, spoke of the hardship endured for over 20 years, in the hands of the Shiite Movement in Nigeria and its leader, Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky.

The residents, who accused El-Zakzaky of running a parallel government, called on the Federal Government to urgently ban the Islamic Movement in Nigeria from their communities.

During a press conference in Kaduna, spokesperson of the affected Zaria communities, Idris Mohammed Baba, claimed that the members of the sect often terrorised residents of Zaria and Sabon Gari local government areas of the state.

Baba said since the incident of December 12, when the military killed hundreds of members of the Shiite group, ‘we have fresh air now blowing in our areas’.

Although the military’s action has been described as a barbaric massacre of Muslims, Baba said residents are happy.

“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.”

“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.”

Speaking in the same vein, Alhaji Saidu Garba, one of the elders of the Gyallesu area, praised Allah for enabling the Nigerian military and federal government for liberating them from the Shiites.

“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.”

Kolapo Olapoju