By Bello Hamza, Abuja
It has been an annual activity to commemorate the International Quds Day on the last Friday of every month of Ramadan to show support for the oppressed people of Palestine who are facing mass genocide perpetrated by the Illegal state of Israel.
This activity has been sustained for the past thirty years in major cities of Nigeria and has always been peaceful as do other activities we engage in over the decades.
Unfortunately on Friday 6th, 2024, the well organized peaceful demonstration staged by unarmed men, women, children and even the physically challenged, to sympathize with the Palestinians and condemn the genocide being perpetrated by Israel in Gaza, the police with full combat-ready force came in tens of vehicles carrying heavy arms and clampdown on the peaceful demonstration.
Not minding who were there, they started by throwing teargas and simultaneously shooting sporadically at women, children, physically challenged and men and onlookers present there, without any provocation.
As a result they killed five innocent persons, including minors, and injured 25, with some of them in very unstable situation. Those killed include;
1. Mahamud Umar
2. Ibrahim Rabiu
3. Haidar Ishaq
4. Mustapha Buruku
5. Ahmad Mustafa
Unfortunately to the dismay of the general public and those that were present at the incident, the Kaduna Police Command, through its spokesperson, addressed the press and gave a contrary statement claiming that they never fired any shot. We stayed here that, this is extremely economical of the truth and very shameful.
We expected the police to have at least stated the crime we committed for attacking our peaceful demonstration and not to concoct fake stories to deceive the public whereas those in the areas it happened saw everything that happened.
And another surprising thing is that the spokesperson of the Kaduna state police Command came out and said that we were arrested with deadly weapons, while everyone knows us, when we are conducting oir activities, apart from the flags that we are raising. we don’t carry anything.
There are video clips, still pictures and even media reports available to prove this, most of which are already viral on social media.
We wish to state categorically that the police attacked the peaceful demonstration, shooting sporadically at women, children, physically challenged and onlookers with live bullets where they killed Five and injured 25 others including minors for their crime of speaking against the genocide perpetrated on Palestinians by Israel.
It is now a global phenomenon worldwide, including major cities of Europe and United States, that people stage mass demonstrations in condemnation of the killings and destructions perpetrated by Israel in Gaza. Is the Nigerian Police working for Israeli government?
Presently, even the government of South Africa is at the International Criminal Court (ICC) challenging this crime against humanity while Kaduna Police Command is killing those lending their voices against the genocide.
We wish the police would use such force on the kidnappers and bandits having a field day in the state and comb them out of the bushes. Unfortunately it is the other way round.
On a final note we wish to state categorically that we are not going to accept this extrajudicial act perpetrated by the police and shall seek legal redress before a competent court of jurisdiction in the country.
We reiterate that as Nigerian citizens, we enjoy the right to express ourselves, we have the freedom to choose whatever faith to belong to and to preach our creed in the peaceful manner we have conducted ourselves in decades.
