by Jones Onwuasoanya
The treatments being meted out to Shiite muslims in Nigeria is wrong and it is worst when we remember that we are supposed to be in a democracy.
It started from small clashes between the Army and some of the sect members who have continued to deny that they did not brandish any dangerous weapons – and I believe they didn’t – because they lost hundreds of their members, while not a single soldier was killed. Were their dangerous weapons for fancy?
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It is bad enough that officers of the Nigerian Army allegedly invaded the meeting place of these sect members and allegedly killed hundreds of them -some of them, in their sleep, as I learnt – It is worst that the same Nigerian Army have continued their genocidal impunity by continuing to destroy the properties of this sect without having obtained any order from the court to that effect.
No matter how guilty anyone is presumed to be by a group of people, democratic principles require that such persons are allowed to defend him/herself in court of competent jurisdiction.
If the reports coming from usually reliable quarters to the effect that the enclave of this group has been reduced to rubble by the Nigerian Army, after a good number of their leaders have been extra-judicially executed without trial, then all Nigerians of all religious and ethnic leanings must stand up and condemn this action.
There is nothing that encourages violent dissent and possibly, terrorism more than injustice from those who should guarantee justice to the citizenry. The injustice meted to the Shiites in the last few weeks is in such a scale that should they decide to retaliate, they may be more suicidal than the Boko Haram insurgents.
May Nigeria prevail.
Jones FC Onwuasoanya is a political and social activist. Connect with him on Facebook.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
