By Ikechukwu Nnochiri

ABUJA—The Federal Government, yesterday, gave reasons why the detained leader of the Shi’ite Islamic sect, Sheikh Ibraheem el-Zakzaky, will not be released from detention, saying it was keeping him to stave off circumstances that made Boko Haram sect turn violent in 2009.

It told the court that Zakzaky was on December 14, 2015, taken into protective custody by the Department of State Services, DSS, following an intelligence report that he was going to be killed.

Buratai and El-zakzaky

The Federal Government, which made the disclosure while responding to a N2 billion fundamental rights enforcement suit by the detained Islamic leader, filed through his lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), said: “It is common knowledge that it was after the extra-judicial killing of the former leader of Boko Haram, Mohammed Yusuf, in police custody that the group, which prior to that, had operated quietly metamorphosed into a full blown terrorist group, plaguing the country and has killed thousands of people in various attacks.

“Up till this present time, despite the efforts of the Nigerian Army to quell the activities of this deadly group, the north-eastern part of Nigeria has been rendered unsafe as terrifying activities of Boko Haram in that area have turned the indigenes of these communities into displaced persons, who now live in camps around the country in the most deplorable conditions.

“The 1st respondent believes that if the applicant, who is the leader of Islamic Movement of Nigeria, one of the largest Islamic groups in the country, is allowed to be killed as revealed in the security report, the country may be plunged into another Boko Haram crisis, which was what necessitated the remand of the applicant in protective custody until it can be ascertained that he is no longer in such danger.”

Besides, government, through a 13-paragraph counter-affidavit dated June 9, deposed by one Ayodeji Ibitoye, an operative in the Legal Services Department of DSS, told the court that to save the applicant’s life, he was evacuated to the service’s medical facility.