The Islamic Movement has called on the relevant authorities to immediately release two of its members, Idris Muhammad and Awwal Husain, recently arrested by the Army in Jos, the Plateau State capital.

A statement issued Wednesday by the Media Forum of the Movement, signed by the President, Ibrahim Musa said: “On the 31st of March, 2018 a contingent of soldiers in five vehicles encircled the demolished Islamic centre of members of the Islamic Movement in Jos and arrested two persons, who were part of a Islamic studies learning session taking place in the centre. Unfortunately to date, the arrested persons have not been charged of any offence and have not been released to their families.”

According to the group, the fact that members of the Islamic Movement were just conducting a religious obligation in a centre they legally own when they were pounced upon by the Army is enough pointer to the Army’s complicity in executing a religious vendetta by some unscrupulous people, and therefore “condemn this disheartening attitude of the Army in the strongest terms.”

“That was how they were used in 2016 when the centre was burnt and vandalised in collaboration with some vagabonds belonging to a religious organisation.

“We will like to remind the authorities of the military Special Task Force in Jos that the Nigerian Army is supposedly non-partisan when it comes to religious affairs, it has no business whatsoever in handling any religious dispute, if at all there is any. And in this particular case it is not even a dispute, but a case of some Nigerians discharging their religious duty peacefully at their legally owned center when soldiers were sent to intimidate and harass them,” the statement said.

“It is equally important to suggest that to avert a reoccurrence of such misinformed blunder, whenever some disgruntled elements of the public gave them a false alarm against the Islamic Movement, they should first investigate and report the matter to the police, since it is a civil matter.

“Their presence in our gatherings is unwanted, uncalled for and utterly shameful to their status,” the statement further said.

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