The Department of State Services (DSS) said on Friday that the leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), Sheik Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, is not dead, contrary to rumours.
El-Zakzaky’s lawyer, Mr.Femi Falana (SAN), also confirmed that he is alive although seriously ill.
An official of the DSS, who preferred to remain anonymous, told newsmen that El-Zakzaky was hale and hearty.
Reacting separately, he said the bullet in El-Zakzaky’s wife’s body is yet to be removed.
The cleric and his wife sustained gunshot wounds during their arrests.
”Clinically he (El-Zakzaky) is not dead yet. But he is very sick,” Mr. Falana said.
“He has lost an eye; he is in the process of losing the other one. He has developed stroke in detention.
“Bullets in the wife’s body have not been removed since 2015,” he added.
El-Zakzaky was arrested in 2015 after his members had a confrontation with the convoy of the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, in Zaria, Kaduna State.
Also, 53 of his followers were arrested on Wednesday by the Police in Abuja following a violent protest.
Since the arrest and detention of the group’s leader, his followers have been holding a series of protests in some cities in the country, calling for his release.
