Albani: Let’s handle with care
The story of Sheikh Muhammad Awwal Adam Albani of Zaria comes across as one such case. The youthful Muslim scholar, very popular among Muslim youths in Zaria and other parts of Kaduna state, was said to have been vehement in his opposition to what most northerners saw as an act of short-changing the Muslim north. […]
The story of Sheikh Muhammad Awwal Adam Albani of Zaria comes across as one such case. The youthful Muslim scholar, very popular among Muslim youths in Zaria and other parts of Kaduna state, was said to have been vehement in his opposition to what most northerners saw as an act of short-changing the Muslim north. Numerous other prominent northerners had expressed similar sentiments when it became obvious that the ruling PDP was getting set to jettison its zoning formula in order to favour President Jonathan.
The rest, of course, is history and we are all living witnesses to how political intrigues of the highest order led to Goodluck Jonathan emerging as our president again. Yet no one expected the reaction to his election victory to be so bloody and far-reaching, but no one must be led to believe that someone masterminded the reactions either. It was obvious that they were spontaneous reactions. Though many immediate factors had led to their eruption, the remote cause was the PDP’s jettisoning of its zoning formula, which though a party affair, had this grave implication of making a large section of the country feel cheated.
When Sheikh Albani was arrested one week ago, the explanation was that he was arrested on the orders of the Inspector-General of Police, Hafiz Ringim because he was implicated in the Kaduna pre-election bomb blast. But, according to media reports, the young detainee who dropped his name during interrogation in connection with the blast, could neither identify him as the man he mentioned nor recognise his voice when Albani was displayed by the police along with other suspects. Yet rather than this lack of recognition earning Albani his freedom, it led to further travails as the police only took him home last Wednesday in order to raid it. After the raid on Sheikh Albani’s home and school, the police marched him back to Kaduna and retained him in detention.
One of his disciples Dr. Abdurra’uf Abdulghaniyyu told Weekly Trust that ‘They did not get anything after searching the house and the school. After they finished the search they came out to write something on a paper and then moved away. It was Malam (Albani) who led them into the house and when they finished the search they went back with him. We have already instituted a court case and by tomorrow (last Thursday) the police will be served. We want to resolve this issue through peaceful means and that is why we are patient and taking all these steps.’
If the Nigerian constitution says you can’t detain a suspect for more than 48 hours without taking him to court then the Nigeria Police is already violating this provision of the constitution by keeping Sheikh Albani for a week without instituting a case against him. The other option is to release a suspect on the grounds of lack of evidence after two days in detention. And the police has not done that either. Tension is already high in Zaria, according to media reports, due to the arrest of Albani and another Muslim scholar soon after him.
Malam Bala Adamu Askar was said to have been picked by the police a few days after Albani’s arrest at Unguwar Mai Gwado, where he is the Imam of the Jumuat mosque there. The police explanation was that he was arrested because he was allegedly involved in teaching youths to make bombs. He too has not been taken to court, but is now on detention at the Criminal Investigation Department CID, of the state Police command in Kaduna. The force has to decide whether to release these scholars or take them to court without further delay, if it believes it has a case against them. This is the only way to stop this infringement on their fundamental human rights and to prevent a breakdown of law and order. Their arrests and detention are acts of provocation that can lead angry disciples to the streets in search of justice.
There is also the ominous story that a list of Muslim scholars’ names is with the state’s police command for a subsequent crackdown in connection with the post-election crisis. All this will not augur well for the ancient city or for Kaduna state. If for political or other sentiments, the police command allows itself to be used to witch-hunt Muslim scholars, then it will stir a crisis that will have repercussions throughout the nation.
The police command must remember that the post-election violence took the form of massacres of large numbers of Muslims in Southern Kaduna. We are yet to hear of the arrest of any member of the Christian clergy over allegations of their being the masterminds of those cold-blooded killings. Any attempt at selective justice will only result in worse crisis in Northern Nigeria. The police must do a painstaking job of fishing out the real perpetrators of that violence. If we are already worrying about illegal detentions and selective justice at this stage, imagine what we will have to worry about when the anti-terrorism law comes into being. The time to allay our fears that all these will not be excuses to gag the Nigerian Muslim is now. IGP Hafiz Ringim can do so by ordering the immediate release of Sheikh Albani and others.