Residents did not want members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) to hold their Ghadeer, a religious meeting, in the area.


A clash was reported on Monday as residents of Dorayi Babba area of Kano stopped members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) from holding their Ghadeer, a religious meeting, in the area.

PREMIUM TIMES gathered that members of the Islamic sect were trying to hold the meeting on a plot of land belonging to one of them in the area.

Local sources said some elders in the area had met the owner of the plot and asked him to sell it because they do not like Shiites gathering in their area.
“Some of the elders felt unsafe with the Shiites gathering in the area. But the man said he would only sell the land at N50,000,000 while they said they could only give him N12,000,000,” a resident of the area, Bilyaminu Abubakar, told Premium Times.

He said when some of the followers of Ibrahim El Zakzaky arrived for the Ghadeer meeting on Monday, some youth in the area challenged them. “And before you know it, the discussion turned violent.”

Another source, Aminu Miko, said: “A car belonging to one Saleh Haruna was burnt to ashes by some of the residents.”
He also said some of the sect’s followers were wounded during the disturbance.

The police spokesperson in the state, Abdullahi Kiyawa, said four people have been arrested in connection with the incident but did not provide more details.

Recall that the leader of the IMN, Mr Zakzaky, and his wife, Zeenatu, were released on July 28 after five years in detention.

This followed their acquittal by the Kaduna State High Court of charges brought against them by the Kaduna State Government over a clash between the Shiites and Nigerian soldiers in Zaria in December.