TheCable

The Initiative to Save Democracy, a political group, has alleged that Ibraheem El-Zakzaky, leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), chose the Indian hospital he left to return to Nigeria on Friday for a reason best known to him.

In a statement on Friday, Peter Oladele, secretary of the group, said the suit filed by El-Zakzaky’s lawyer which resulted in his release for medical treatment, stated the hospital where he ought to receive treatment.

The IMN had accused the federal government of frustrating El-Zakzaky’s treatment abroad but Oladele said the Nigerian Shi’ia leader and the IMN “are only trying to be mischievous by politicising” his abrupt return to Nigeria.

“The facts are there and they are clear, Sheikh El-Zakzaky and his lawyers picked the Medanta hospital so he has no reasons to complain,” he said in the statement.

Quoting Grace Gekpe, permanent secretary of the ministry of information, Oladele said the Indian authorities were irked by the “unruly behaviour of El-Zakzaky”.

Oladele said El-Zakzaky refused to subject himself to preliminary medical checks after officials resisted pressure to give him his international passport.

“He demanded free movement and access to visitors of all kinds and also requested to be allowed to be checked into a five star hotel instead of being admitted in a hospital,” he said.

“The request was rejected on the ground that he came into the country for medicals, and not as a tourist, especially with the visa issued on medical grounds and not tourism.

“Against medical ethics and standard practice, he requested to nominate doctors of his choice to join the ones tasked by Medanta Hospital to perform medical treatment on him and his wife.

“That demand created a stalemate as the hospital insisted that he would not dictate to it on the choice of medical personnel to carry the required medical treatment.

“Frustrated by his antics, the Indian authorities have expressed willingness to return him to Nigeria with immediate effect. This is on the account that they will not allow him use their country to internationalise his group’s activities.”