A 58-year-old member of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) collapsed on Friday morning on learning that President Muhammadu Buhari had returned to the country.
The man, a potato seller, is known as “Mallam Ibrahim” by locals at the popular Mararraban Jos, a few kilometres to Kawo, Kaduna state.
Members of IMN, also known as Shiites, have been at loggerheads with the Buhari administration since the December 2015 when soldiers of the Nigerian Army killed them in hundreds without provocation.
Their leader, Ibraheem El Zakzaky and his wife Zainab had been in detention since then and is reportedly going blind due to injuries sustained during his arrest after an attack on the shiite group that claimed the lives of three of his sons and hundreds of shiite followers.
TheCable reports that Ibrahim fainted instantly when he heard the news of Buhari’s early morning return from his 49-day medical leave in the UK.
Some members of IMN are believed to have held special prayers against the return of president to the country.
Many reportedly vowed that if Buhari came back alive, they would renounce their membership of the group.
A witness sent the picture of “Mallam Ibrahim” being helped by members of the public on the way to the hospital.