Just In: Court orders Kaduna prison to release El-Zakzaky’s wife, Zeenat for COVID treatment

A Kaduna state high court has asked the Kaduna correctional service to release Zeenat, wife of Ibrahim El–Zakzaky, leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), for COVID-19 treatment.

In the ruling delivered on Monday, the court asked that Zeenat be moved to a government isolation facility to begin treatment immediately.

The embattled leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky and his wife, Zeenat were absent as their trial resumed on Monday at the Kaduna State High Court.

Security was beefed up in the state capital as well as all the roads leading to the High Court complex. El-Zakzaky and his wife have been in detention since 2015 after his followers clashed with soldiers in Zaria, Kaduna.

During today’s court sitting, the Prosecuting Counsel Dari Bayero is expected to bring the remaining witnesses including a GOC of the Nigerian Army.

The presiding judge, Justice Gideon Kurada had on December the 11th, 2020, adjourned the case to January 25, 2021, after the prosecution counsel presented six witnesses before the court.

The prosecuting counsel had initially presented two witnesses from the Nigerian army who testified in secret before the court, while a Director from the state security services and three residents of Gyallesu in Zaria were among the four witnesses that were admitted as witnesses.

The witnesses were also cross-examined by the Defence Counsel, Femi Falana.

El-Zakzaky and his wife are facing trial on an eight-count charge bordering alleged culpable homicide, unlawful assembly and disruption of the public peace among other charges, to which they both pleaded not guilty on Sept. 29, 2020.

Both of them are being detained at the Nigerian Correctional facility in Kaduna State on the orders of the court.

Last week, Members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), also known as Shiites, asked the Federal Government to immediately release Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky from detention, after his Wife, Zeenah, who is also in detention, tested positive for the dreaded Coronavirus disease.

The Islamic group said that IMN was deeply worried that six days after contracting COVID-19 while in detention at Kaduna Correctional facility, Zeenah had not been taken to any specialised hospital to receive proper medical care.

IMN’s spokesman, Ibrahim Musa, in a statement, said: “We all know that COVID-19 requires an immediate response to medical advice. More so, Malama Zeenah Ibrahim has been denied treatment for acute medical conditions including severe arthritis of the knee for five years now. She is still in Kaduna prison at the moment, yet to be hospitalised and yet to receive proper health care.”