The Nigerian government has proscribe the Shiites’ organisation, known as the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, IMN. The Federal High Court in Abuja had, on Friday, ordered the proscription of the Shiites’ movement after series of protests by the Islamic organisation in Abuja.
Nkeonye Maha issued the order in a ruling.
She also designated the activities of the Shiite organisation in any part of Nigeria as acts of terrorism and illegality. The court restrained any person or group of persons from participating in any form of activities involving or concerning the IMN under any name or platform in Nigeria.
To complete the process of the proscription of the group, the court ordered the Attorney-General of the Federation “to publish the order proscribing the respondent (Islamic Movement in Nigeria) in the official gazette and two national dailies.” The judge gave the order following an ex parte application by the Federal Government. A copy of the ex parte application marked FHC/ABJ/CS/876/2019 was filed in the name of the ‘Attorney-General of the Federation.’
Justice Maha granted the four prayers contained in the application shortly after the Solicitor-General of the Federation and Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Justice, Mr Dayo Apata, argued the application on Friday. The IMN was the sole respondent to the application but the group was not represented by a lawyer on Friday since it was an ex parte hearing. Ruling on Friday, the court made “a declaration that the activities of the respondent (Islamic Movement in Nigeria) in any part of Nigeria amounts to acts of terrorism and illegality.”
Shiites reacts to Federal Government’s ban on its activities
The Islamic Movement in Nigeria, IMN, also know as Shiites, has described the application by the ban on the activities of the sect as unconstitutional.
The Federal Government had, on Friday, obtained an ex parte order from a Federal High Court in Abuja, banning the activities of the sect.
Justice Nkeonye Maha, in making the order, designated the activities of the sect as “acts of terrorism and illegality.”
The court restrained “any person or group of persons” from participating in any form of activities involving or concerning the IMN “under any name or platform” in Nigeria.
But reacting, the spokesman of the Academic Forum of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, Abdullahi Musa, said the Shiites sect in Nigeria is not a registered organisation. “We practice religion; it is Islam we practice and nobody will ban us from praying under the law,” he said. “Does it mean we cannot do all the activities of the sect? Nobody has any right to ban any religion in Nigeria except they want to create another problem in Nigeria.”
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