We’ve no link with Boko Haram members - Shiites

Members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, otherwise known as the Shiites, on Monday, denied having any link or planning an alliance with the Boko Haram sect.

Boko Haram, which started its violent campaign in 2009, had wreaked havoc in the north eastern states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe.

The group had reportedly killed no fewer than 20,000 people and displaced over two million persons from their homes.

A statement by the President of the Media Forum of the IMN, Ibrahim Musa, said the sect had received an intelligence report that the Nigerian security agents had insinuated that the Shiites were planning an alliance with the terror sect.

It added that the intelligence report further indicated that due to the said strategic alliance with the Boko Haram, attacks would be carried out on military formations and other government buildings.

The Shiites said, “Ordinarily, we wouldn’t have even reacted to this latest ‘intelligence report’ had it not been due to the frequency with which the report is being peddled across the intelligence community, since we have, in the past, reiterated our stance vis-à-vis terrorism and terrorist groups.

“However, we distance the IMN from any attempt to associate it with violence and other militant activities. Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky, our revered leader, has said it many times without number that our weapon is positive reasoning, truth and good conduct.

“Guns are for the reckless and foolhardy ones. We have been conducting our affairs peacefully, calling people to the truth for the last 36 years. So, you cannot come overnight and attribute violence to us; that we now resort to killing people. This is impossible. We save lives, not kill them.

“This is the teaching of Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky for the past almost four decades, and we will not derail from that in the face of provocation as wished by the Nigerian government and its security agents.

“We hereby state categorically that there is no connection or any link whatsoever between the Islamic Movement in Nigeria and Boko Haram.”