Group asks FG to freeze Shiites’ bank accounts

Friday Olokor, Abuja

A civil rights organisation, Coalition Against Terrorism and Extremism, has called on the Federal Government to move a step further by placing a nationwide ban on the activities of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, led by Ibraheem El-Zakzaky.

According to CATE, government should take further the recent order by the Kaduna State Government, which banned the group from operating in the state, “by ordering the immediate freezing of the bank accounts illegally operated by IMN.”

The Secretary-General of the group, Daniel Obaje, stated this in a statement in Abuja.

  

“Further directives must be issued to security agencies, with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission being in the lead of unravelling how much foreign funds come to the IMN and if it has a link with international terror financing.

“We appeal to the judiciary not to overlook national interest in entertaining suits that IMN sympathisers would institute in their bid to overturn this ban,” he stated.

According to him, an organisation that has no legal existence should not be able to meet the requirements of banking institutions.

He described the ban on IMN by the Kaduna State Government as a welcome development, adding that it came at the right time given what it described as a series of activities that members of the sect had planned to undermine security in Kaduna and across the country.

Obaje reaffirmed the stance of the group for religious freedom of all Nigerians, arguing that such freedom should not compromise the well-being of others.