“We swear to Almighty God that what they did to us we have not forgiven and we will never forgive."
Security agencies are currently studying a purported audio message of an unnamed cleric of the Islamic Movement Nigeria (Shiites) threatening to avenge the death of over 300 members of the sect in last year's attack by Nigerian soldiers in Zaria, Kaduna State, SaharaReporters has learnt.
The threat of reprisal, SaharaReporters learnt, is directed against the Nigerian military and the government. The attack, which took place exactly a year ago on Sunday, presaged the outlawing of the group.
SaharaReporters' translation of the Hausa audio message yielded naked threats to the military and government. It detailed the attacks on the sect, describing the country as an animal kingdom and warning that the group has not forgiven attacks against its members and will never forgive.
The message alleged that the sect has been treated with disdain, claiming that Niger Delta militants and Boko Haram, who are in open armed conflict with the country, are treated with leniency. The group warned that if any untoward thing should happen to its leader, Ibrahim El Zakzaky, the whole of the country will be made to pay.
See transcript below:
“We were just killed like that in a broad daylight. There was no any reason for that massacre apart from the fact we say Prophet Muhammad is the messenger of God and we wanted to adhere to the part that was brought by the Prophet Muhammad. To them, why should we say that? That's why they created laws that were not in the constitution; that were not in the state bills, that were not in any law in any nation and implemented them on us.
“So, what happened from December to date has taught us many lessons. First of all, we knew which country we are living in. We knew that we are living in the animal kingdom. We knew our enemies within us. We knew the laws that were made for us. We knew their weaknesses. What we are telling them now with a harsh voice that it is one year from the mass killings in Zaria. And is also two weeks now from the mass killings in Kano. We are also fully aware of their plan for another mass killings.
“We swear to Almighty God that what they did to us we have not forgiven and we will never forgive. We did not stop, and we will never stop. We swear to Almighty God we must take revenge. We all now know their language because what we thought was these people have a sense of reasoning since we have so many times told them that we don't carry weapons and we don't fight. Thinking that they will call us for reconciliation, but instead, they are killing us daily and pushing us to the wall.
“Is this how we are going to allow these people to be killing us? To kill our men, our women, and our children? Is this how we are going to live? We must take all possible means to start protecting ourselves. We want this message to reach them that we will start protecting ourselves. If we we are living in a country where there is a government, we may expect something to be done. But we realize that we are living with animals. That is why we are telling them in a harsh voice we will start protecting ourselves. We will not fold our arms so that everyday they will come and kill our women and children.
“Niger Delta militants have their arms with them fighting the government, killing the soldiers, killing policemen and vandalizing oil pipelines. But up to now, they are not killed like us. Boko Haram also have their weapons, killing soldiers, policemen, but the number killed are also not like us, we the followers of Malam Zakzaky. This is just to show that if we had taken our weapons, we wouldn't have being killed like this. They have killed over 2,000 among us just like that. We swear we will start protecting ourselves. We will not continue just to sit down like that and be killed. Common sense will not accept this.
“The only solution to this problem is, we either stop practising our religion, so that they will stop killing us or we take some measures to protect ourselves so that everyone will suffer. One life is not superior to the other. This is my message and I can repeat it everywhere and in front anyone.
“We are still saying that if anything happens to our leader, Malam Zakzaky, I swear, it will affect everybody. No one will live in peace. Let them not think that if they kill our leader, we will just cry, mourn, wear black clothes and leave everything to God. We are going to change our approach in a way no one expects.”
