Nigerian Court Grants Sheikh Zakzaky Access to Medical Care

The High Court in Kaduna on Tuesday ordered the Kaduna State Government to avail the leader of Islamic Movement in Nigeria, Sheikh Ibrahim al-Zakzaky and his wife Zinat, access to medical care.

Leader of Islamic Movement in Nigeria Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky has appeared in court in the state of Kaduna over several counts of charges.

According to counsel to the defendants, Femi Falana, doctors would determine where to treat Sheikh al-Zakzaky and his wife and the type of medical care they would require. He expressed the hope that their medical condition would improve before March 25, the adjourned date.

The top cleric, who is in his mid-sixties, lost his left eyesight in a raid which was carried out by the Nigerian army on his residence in the northern town of Zaria in December 2015.

During the raid, Zakzaky’s wife sustained serious wounds too and more than 300 of his followers and three of his sons were killed. Zakzaky, his wife, and a large number of the cleric’s followers have since been in custody.

A judicial inquiry after the 2015 brutal raid concluded that the military had killed 347 IMN members in Zaria. Soldiers buried the bodies in mass graves.

Several international organizations and human rights groups have denounced “the Zaria massacre.”