A Kaduna High Court has ordered the release of Zeenah Ibrahim, the wife of Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, the detained the leader of Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), in order to undergo COVID-19 treatment.
The court ruled that Zeenah should immediately be moved to a government isolation centre for COVID-19 patients to receive treatments.
IMN had released a statement last Thursday that Zeenah contracted COVID-19 while in detention at a Kaduna Correctional Centre.
The IMN members complained that her old age and a fragile health condition could worsen the infection as she “has not been taken to any specialised hospital for such patients to receive proper medical care.”
The Kaduna Command of Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS) had earlier denied that she contracted the virus and refused to release her for medication.
However, on Saturday, HumAngle exclusively obtained two medical reports confirming that she was tested positive for the Covid-19.
Zeenah and her husband were arrested in 2015 following a confrontation between IMN’s members and the Nigerian Army that led to the extrajudicial killing of over 300 civilians.
They have since been in detention despite a court order in 2016 granting them bail and ordering the Department of State Services (DSS) to pay a fine of N50 million.
Their unlawful detention has been challenged by IMN members who have repeatedly taken to the streets in protest for years despite resistance from the police and military.
Several of them were killed and injured in the process of seeking the release of their leader and his wife.
The government prosecuting the IMN leader for alleged culpable homicide, unlawful assembly, and disruption of public peace despite losing hundreds of his followers, including his children, in the clash.
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