Zaria massacre: Shiites mark 8th anniversary, demand justice

The Islamic Movement in Nigeria (ISM) otherwise known as Shiites, on Saturday, reiterated calls for the prosecution of the executors of the December 12, 2015 massacre in Zaria, Kaduna state.

This is as the group held the 8th anniversary of the massacre in Abuja, with the theme, ‘The Site of Memory: An Ardent Resistance of Our Fallen Heroes”.

Speaking on the topic, ‘Women and Children Rights Violation during Zaria Massacre’, one of the guest speakers, Isah Hassan Mshelgaru, called and solicited for justice on behalf of the victims.

He specifically drew the attention of Human right advocates, at local and international levels; Amnesty international and similar bodies; The international community, the claimants of democracy and civility championships; UNICEF, whose area of responsibility is mothers and children affairs; feminists, at local and international levels and Advocates of women’s right.

“Taking similar measures to the global impacts on Palestinian issue we can do the same and attract sympathy for the Zaria 2015 rights violation victims who were not only kidnapped but sexually harassed and mercilessly murdered by state terrorists,” he said.

Mshelgaru said these awareness efforts, if well harnessed, would help prepare the ground for arranging the violators before the International Court of Justice with war crimes or similar charges.

A survivor of the massacre, Jummai Karofi, who expressed sadness over the loss of her five children during the incident dismissed hope of getting justice.

She said: “I am a mother of nine, I lost five in the Zaria massacre but three are my biological children and two are adopted, but I gave birth to nine children. One died naturally and three were shot dead in Zaria. One is carrying a bullet in his chest right now and I also was severely injured.

“My experience was traumatic. It was terrible. I saw more corpses that I never thought I would see in my life. They were killing everybody. They were shooting indiscriminately. They were not choosing who to shoot. I don’t know why they did what they did. There was no reason for it at all.

“Personally, I have lost hope for justice because the movement had so far been targeted twice for no reason, during this current administration.”