The Islamic Movement of Nigeria also known as The Sh’ite Group has posted a video on YouTube purportedly showing the attack against them by the soldiers of the Nigerian Army on December 12 and 13, 2015 which was described as deliberate and planned.
It will be recalled that more than 300 members were killed which the army initially described as an assassination attempt on the Chief of Army Staff, Turkur Buratai.
The military later released an edited video showing a group of angry youth with sticks and cutlasses arguing with some army brass over the right of way for the convoy of Mr Buratai.
The 22:36-minute edited video, which is delivered in Hausa but subtitled in English, said the attack on the sect was unprovoked.
He said the sect members were preparing for the change of the Maulud flag when they saw soldiers stationing themselves near a NNPC filling station directly opposite the sect’s enclave, Husainiyya, and dropping boxes of ammunition.
The narrator explained that the military lied when it claimed that Mr. Buratai’s convoy was denied the right of way. He said in the past, soldiers and military convoys passed through their processions and gatherings unhindered.
He said the sect only approached Mr. Buratai’s convoy to tell the soldiers to move further away with their weapon to avoid an occurrence of the 2014 incident where a traffic argument with a group of soldiers led to the killing of 34 members of the sect, among them three sons of Mr Zakzaky.
“We asked them to move forward with their weapons due to the 2014 incident where 34 members were killed,” the narrator said.
The narrator claimed instead soldiers spread themselves out around the nearby polo ground encircling the Husainiyya as if in a war front. The narrator alleged that it was at the point of trying to placate the soldiers that the soldiers started firing on them.