*Calls on any group carrying out violent protests to stop now, else the government would take decisive actions against them.
President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday warned that the protesting members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, otherwise known as Shi’ites, were testing the patience of the Federal Government with their violent protests in Abuja.
He said the FG might be forced to act with maximum force to defend the interest of the majority of Nigerians should Shi’ites continue disturbing the peace of the nation.
Reacting to the killing of Deputy Commissioner of Police Usman Umar and National Youth Service Corps member, Precious Owolabi, during Monday’s protest by the sect, Buhari called on any group carrying out violent protests to stop now, else the government would take decisive actions against them.
“Let nobody or group doubt or test our will to act in the higher interest of the majority of our citizens,” a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, quoted Buhari as saying on Tuesday.
The President said he was deeply touched by the death of Umar and Owolabi as he condoled with their families and the management of Channels TV, where the corps member was attached to.
He described the two as “law-abiding, hard-working and vibrant Nigerians with a promising future.”
The group has been protesting the continued detention of their leader, Ibrahim El-ZakZaky who has been in prison custody for more than four years despite court orders that granted him bail.
The leader of the group was arrested in 2015 after the group blocked/attacked the convoy of the Chief of Army Staff, COAS, Buratai in Kaduna.
During the raid of El-ZakZaky home, four of his children were killed. Human Right group also accused the army of killing more than four hundred members of the Islamic Movement also known as Shi’ites.
