The Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) has dismissed accusation of planning coup against Nigerian government in Kaduna.

Kaduna State Citizens for Peace had raised an alarm, accusing the Islamic group of trying to install their own government in Kaduna State.

While reacting to the accusation in a statement on Thursday, in Kaduna, Professor Abdullahi Danladi, Chairman, Resource Forum of IMN, described the accusation as unfounded. He dismissed it as “evil machinations of the security apparatus to stage false flag operations and blame the Islamic Movement.”

He said even after the December 2015 attack on the Islamic Movement which according to him, “saw over a thousand innocent lives lost to the bullets of the ‘gallant’ Nigerian Army and the arrest of Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky and hundreds of his followers,” the Islamic Movement has never lost focus of being civil in its operations.

“It is on this note we want to disassociate the Islamic Movement from any form of action that may lead to the ‘breach of peace’ in Kaduna State or anywhere talk less of a ‘coup in Kaduna State’.

“Waggish as the garbage may be it is imperative to clear the erroneous message carried in it. In this era of joblessness it is not too arduous to hire brutes that have no moral values to take to the streets especially when someone has enough resources at his disposal.

“So, the hitherto nonentities like Richard Augustine and Nathaniel Agada who were commissioned to act as the president and secretary of the unknown group ‘Kaduna State citizens for peace’ very well know that they are agents of scamp and false tale mongers.”

The chairman added: “The Islamic Movement in Nigeria has been in existence for about 40 years. Members of the movement are fully integrated in the society, their methods of operation and activities are open and well known to the world.

“So it is malicious and open mendacities for any hired road side hoodlum and his group to associate violence to the movement.

“It is on record that the Islamic Movement in Nigeria has never breached any peace even on provocation. When in 2014, the then government decided to attack and killed 34 members of the Islamic Movement; there were insinuations from the security quarters that IMN members were going to take retaliatory measures by attacking Military and Police installations and barracks.

“The recently submitted report of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry (JCI) which according to some media has indicted the Nigerian Army is obviously the cause of discomfort to the government and hence the need to mop up support and sympathy for the officers indicted.

“Yes, the so called fictitious ‘Kaduna State citizens for Peace’ group is free to express its fears or the fears of their contractors over the possible implications of the report of the JCI.

“They may however, wish to remember that Chief Femi Falana (SAN) made his call on the Kaduna state government to prosecute soldiers that attacked the IMN group some days before the JCI submitted its report.

“His call was based on professional knowledge of law. Falana is an authority in his profession.

“His integrity and reputation speak for him in the circle of his colleagues and beyond. He is an icon of law and Human Rights activism and a senior Advocate of Nigeria.

“With these distinguishing qualities and characteristics of Chief Femi Falana (SAN), it is therefore surprising how some hired louts can fault his submissions.

“Where are the legal professionals? The contractors of ‘Kaduna State citizens for peace’ group could do better by engaging them to sort things out.

“If despite the non-appearance of IMN at the JCI, what was made available to the Commission was so incriminating to indict the Nigerian Army, one wonders what would have been the result had the government allowed Sheikh Zakzaky to appear and make his submission or the legal team of the IMN had made their submissions.

“We want to state in clear and strong terms that the claim by ‘Kaduna State Citizens for peace’ that ‘the IMN are said to be on standby to unleash mayhem citing the rejection of the panel’s report as the reason for violent protests in the state, which would then be spread to other parts of the country’ is false and baseless.”

•Photo shows detained Nigerian Shiite Leader Ibrahim El-Zakzaky.

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