By COLLINS NNABUIFE, Abuja

The Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) also known as Shi’ites have lamented over what it described as the deteriorating health of their leader, Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky and his wife in detention.

The Shi’ites said information reaching them revealed that the health condition of Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky and his wife Malama Zeenah Ibraheem is seriously deteriorating.

This is contained in a statement issued by Abdullahi Muhammad Musa on behalf of Academic Forum of the Islamic movement.

The statement said their concern over the health of their leader and his wife is growing as the duo were not supposed to be in detention.

“Our concern over the deteriorating health of Sheikh Zakzaky is growing, as a person of his critical condition is not supposed to remain in incarceration. How on earth will he continue to be in prison with bullet shrapnel causing more harm to an already worsening situation?

“Take for instance the aborted trip to India. From the beginning, after the travel permit was granted by a court, moves were made by the government to frustrate it. If not for Sheikh Zakzaky’s family members who dug in their heels to ensure that the trip actually took place”, the statement said.

The statement explained that “the Sheikh’s health review reveals that the blood lead level concentration in his body is far greater than the levels considered life-threatening. The presence of foreign bodies and metallic pellets within brain tissues may have caused an automatic dysreflexia, thereby interfering with the normal control of physiological activities like blood pressure, temperature, cardiac activities etc. The Sheikh is even at the risk of losing his sight completely.

“The Sheikh has also been suffering from a number of issues: obstructed blood flow to the heart; nerve root compression; severe visual impairment in his remaining right eye and progressive open-angle glaucoma, progressive macular atrophy and other issues that can inevitably lead to permanent blindness. The extremely high concentration of cadmium in his blood, among other things, is also causing a lot of damages.

“His wife suffers from severe arthritis in her knee joints, which her doctors have said can only be treated with knee replacement surgery since at least three years ago. She also has loose fragments of bullet pieces in her abdominal area which cause a large number of episodes of periodic life-threatening complications with her organs, the wheelchair-bound mother of nine is hypertensive. Even one of the ailments suffered by either of them constitutes a very serious medical emergency, let alone a combination of all of them.”

The IMN said the Sheikh has already suffered two strokes while in detention, and the Sheikh Zakzaky and his wife need urgent and critical interventions to salvage their health.

“In view of the deteriorating health condition of Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky (H) and his wife Malama Zeenah Ibraheem, we are demanding for the unconditional release of the couple,” the statement added. (Saturday Tribune)

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