IRNA - Leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky has turned down a government proposal to halt his activities in return for his release from prison.


Zakzaky�s wife said the senior Muslim cleric had stressed that he would not give up the decades-long activities of the Islamic Movement, the Beirut-based Islam Times reported.

His wife described the proposal as another plot to keep Zakzaky in prison.

Despite the ruling of a Federal High Court, which ordered his unconditional release in 2016, the Nigerian government has refused to set him free.

The top cleric lost his left eyesight in a raid which was carried out by the Nigerian army on his residence in the northern town of Zaria in December 2015.

During the raid, Zakzaky�s wife sustained serious wounds too and more than 300 of his followers and three of his sons were killed. Zakzaky, his wife, and a large number of the cleric�s followers have since been in custody.

Zakzaky has been charged with inciting public disturbances, something his movement vehemently denies.