The New Initiative for Credible Leadership (NICreL) has backed the former US Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. John Campbell who said that the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) is by affiliation, doctrines, actions and temperament a reincarnation of the deadly Boko Haram sect.
The group said the IMN has displayed every attribute of the Boko Haram terrorist group during its early stage and Nigeria cannot afford to make such gamble again.
Addressing journalists in Abuja, Reverend Samson Onwu, the NICreL Executive Secretary, said the IMN should therefore be declared as a terrorist Organisation.
He said, “We accept and adopt wholly Ambassador Campbell’s rendition on the sect thus; ‘Advocacy of violence aside, there are striking ideological similarities between IMN and Boko Haram, at least for outside observers. Both see the secular state as evil; both want an Islamic state based on Islamic law, and both want the end to Western influence, including in education. Both also seek the end of northern Nigeria’s traditional political and religious elite…For IMN, the model appears to be the aspirations of the post-revolutionary Iranian Islamic state. Boko Haram’s vision appears more nebulous and less developed, but both try to function as a state-within-state.’
He said Nigerians, especially, those in the far Northern part of the country can verify and confirm these attributes as irrefutable and undeniable about the IMN sect.
He said after over 40 years of the existence of the IMN in Nigeria, it has not registered itself, as a legal entity in accordance with laws of the land, because its allegiance is not to the sovereignty of Nigeria, but Iran, the world’s deadliest hub of terrorism.
He said, “e find it expedient to remind Nigerians of a few tragic incidents masterminded by the Shiites in Nigeria, which have substantially led to insane and irreligious violent disruptions and breach of public peace, law and order and or, in some instances, caused the deaths of Nigerians, including security agents.
“the IMN sect members in December 2015 audaciously blocked the convoy of the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Lt. Gen. Tukur Yusufu Buratai, who was on his way to an official function at the Nigerian Military School, Zaria. Not only that the baselessly enraged sect declined pleas to open the thoroughfare for the Army Chief and his convoy, but they took on the offensive and opened gunfire on the Army Chief’s convoy, intent on assassinating him. How else do terrorists behave?”
“However, after IMN’s proscription by the Kaduna State Government, the irritant sect still found it compelling to embark on a procession led by Sheik Koki, from Kano city to Zaria, it tagged, the annual feast of Ashura or the Arbaeen Trek to Zaria for mourning martyr Imam Husain (AS). At Kwanar Dawaki in Dawakin Kudu LGA of Kano state, attempts by the Police to stop the illegal procession was aggressively resisted by the Shiites, who again went on the offensive, killing some police officers instantly. Is this not a sign of terrorism, strong enough to attract more punitive measures on the sect?”
