Stand Up for Nigeria, a civil society group has fingered the Islamic Movement in Nigeria behind the planned protest across the country in August by Coalition for Revolution (CORE).

The group said IMN was only using CORE to cause panic among Nigerians following its proscription by the Nigerian Government.

Comrade Sunday Attah, National Secretary, while addressing newsmen on Monday, informed the law enforcement agencies that the planned protest was a ploy to evade the designation of the former as terrorist organization and to enable terrorists to continue gathering freely on the streets.

His statement below.

Gentlemen of the press, recent weeks had seen extremists and radical militants take over the streets of Abuja under the aegis of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), which was supposedly demanding the release of their leader, Ibrahim el-Zakyzaky. It must be noted that el-Zakyzaky is on trial for murder, treason and ancillary crimes before a Kaduna State High Court.

The state does not have control of the police and other security agencies so it is logical that while the IMN leader has a case to answer with Kaduna state, he can only be kept in the custody of federal agencies, which is not the same as the Federal Government or the government of President Muhammadu Buhari holding him.

The implication of this is that the violent protests held on the streets of Abuja, and later other Nigerian cities, have nothing to do with the detention of el-Zakyzaky. The protests rather have all the signatures of a terrorism enterprise that is intended to cow the Nigerian state and subjugate all citizens to the reign of IMN, which so happens to be a proxy for Iran.

The measured responses from the Nigerian Police Force and other security organizations, even in the face of aggravated provocations by IMN members, are well documented. Its members often throw projectiles at policemen and in some instances used slingshots to inflict grievous injuries on those whose responsibility it was to prevent the arson that the IMN protestors are intent on committing and also prevent them from manhandling Nigerians.

A side note of use is the reminder that IMN does not believe in the Nigerian state. For every ministry of government that exists it has a corresponding department, which confirms that it is running a parallel country to the one we all know. It also does not believe in the current political configuration of the country be it political parties or offices that result as a consequence of their activities. Effectively, IMN at its most moderate is an anarchist group that later branched into full fledge terrorism.

We were therefore not surprised when the Federal Government, on the strength of a court order, proscribed IMN as a terrorist organization. Let us not forget that militants of IMN executed a Deputy Commissioner of Police on the streets of Abuja in the course of their violent protest on the same they executed a journalist and wasted the life of a dozen others in the course of expressing their so called rage. Before that they have attempted to overthrow the legislative arm of government, being the premier branch of government, when they stormed the National Assembly and laid siege to the place for several hours. That invasion resulted in deaths.
As a matter of emphasis, the Federal High Court in Abuja, presided over by Justice Nkeonye Maha, in addition to proscribing IMN as a terrorists organization, further restrained “any person or group of persons” from participating in any form of activities involving or concerning the IMN “under any name or platform” in the country.

Gentlemen of the press, we are therefore concerned that rather than desisting from “as acts of terrorism and illegality” as ordered by the court, IMN members have, in contravention of the court, regrouped under the name of the COALITION FOR REVOLUTION (CORE) in order for them to continue with their violent protests and continue killing Nigerians. CORE’s manifesto openly threatened violence by saying “We have the right to be in rage and to protest,” an agenda that not only tallies with IMN’s creed but is also consistent with the behavior of the terrorist organization in recent months.

Further confirmation that CORE is nothing but a rebranded IMN can be found in the second of the five demands of the group: 

“For an effective and democratic end to insecurity and insurgency, combined with the immediate dismissal of the security chiefs and release of all political prisoners including the Shiite leader Ibrahim el-Zakzaky.”

Recall that there have been reports that the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate, Mr Atiku Abubakar has been financing the IMN protests in addition to specifying what targets the group should attack. The other four points of CORE’s demand are consistent with Atiku’s propaganda. What we have learnt is that PDP/Atiku has transferred the existing mandate and funding from IMN to CORE in order for the violent street protests to continue with the assassination of policemen later escalating to include senior government officials.

We are using this opportunity to draw the attention of law enforcement agencies to this mutation of IMN into CORE. It is a ploy to evade the designation of the former as terrorist organization and to enable terrorists to continue gathering freely on the streets.

This poses a great danger to the country as they will again be able to resume killing security personnel before adding public office holders to their kill list. It is imperative that the coordinators of the planned protests beginning August 5, 2019 are identified before that date for the purpose of further investigating and establishing their links with IMN.

Nigerians are advised to note that rather than fighting for their cause, CORE is an agent of subjugation that is representing the interest of Iran and a desperate opposition that is eager to reestablish corruption as a norm. All right thinking people must therefore shun the deceptive protests being called by CORE as they are nothing but a ruse to make people support IMN.

Stand Up For Nigeria, a coalition of 22 Civil Society groups and youths groups is challenging CORE to prove that it is not a mutated IMN with the same mandate and funding source. We will soon expose more details of how the promoters of IMN are the very sponsors of IMN protests in Nigeria.

We re-affirm our commitment, the commitment of Nigeria and Nigerians to the unity and indivisibility of the country. We solemnly pledge that Nigerians will defend the country from any uprising being instigated by disgruntled politicians, sectarian terrorists and commercial protesters in the country.