You cannot ban us shi'ite tells kaduna government

The Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), otherwise known as the Shi'ite, has said the movement cannot be banned as it is not an association or society, rather a global concept that canot be banned by fiat.

To this end, it rejected the order declaring the movement as an unlawful society.

This was contained in a statement issued by the spokesman of the sect, Ibrahim Musa on Saturday in Kaduna, while reacting to the ban by the Kaduna State government.

The statement read in part: "the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) wishes to categorically make it clear to the general public that we vehemently reject such an order and declare it a flagrant infringement on our basic rights as citizens of this country to hold an opinion, associate freely without molestation. "

Making references to the recommendations of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry (JCI), which it said the government based its stance on, the movement noted that "all the sections cited to premise this decision are wrong. It is noteworthy that the state government based its dubious stance on the so-called recommendations of JCI while conveniently keeping mute on obvious gross violations of rights reported by the same JCI such as the extrajudicial murder of 347 people and secretly burying them in mass graves without the consent of their relatives.

"The IMN is not an association or a society but a global concept that cannot be banned by fiat. We are not therefore distracted by this baseless move. Clearly reason, logic, the law and constitution, conscience and propriety are all on the side of the Islamic Movement. Nothing can take away our right of as individuals or groups to worship and associate."

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