Chairman of Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), Professor Itse Sagay has called on the federal government to release the detained Shiite leader, Ibrahim El-zakzaky.
Sagay made this call in an exclusive interview with The Interview on Monday.
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When asked if there were any legal justification for still detaining El-zakzaky, who has been in detention since 2015 after his sect had a face-off with Nigerian Army, Sagay said El-zakzaky had suffered enough and should be released.
He said, “Frankly, I am very sad about his continuous detention. I think it gets to a stage where no matter what the person has done; giving what he has gone through, there should be some compassion in the mind of state authorities.
“I think this man (El-zakzaky) has suffered enough. I am from the South. Those in the north are the ones who are very angry and know details of what he has done; how he used to intimidate everybody, zoning some part of the town to his organisation, and being intolerant.”
Sagay said El-zakzaky had paid severely for whatever he might have done and that he should be released on compassionate grounds.
“I think he has paid a very severe price for whatever wrong he might have done. He has lost children.
“That is the worst thing that can happen to human being – to lose a child. But he has lost children. He himself has been injured. His wife has been injured. He has been incarcerated. He is very ill. I think the government, the state, should have compassion and let this man go and rest,” Sagay said.