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A Kaduna State High Court on Thursday ordered that the leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, IMN, Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky and his wife, Zeenat be transferred from the custody of the Department of State Services, DSS, to a correctional centre in the state.
        Justice Gideon Kudafa in his ruling explained that the decision to remand El-Zakzaky and his wife in a correctional facility was to enable their lawyers and doctors to have easy access to them. Following his ruling, the judge adjourned the case to February, the 6th for the commencement of trial. El-Zakzaky is facing trial over allegations of culpable homicide, unlawful assembly, and disruption of public peace, among other charges. Recall that Justice Kudafa had on March 26th adjourned the case indefinitely following his appointment as a member of the Election Petition Tribunal in Yobe State. The IMN leader and his wife were not in court during the last proceedings, although their counsel, Femi Falana, claimed that their absence was due to their deteriorated health conditions. El-Zakzaky and his wife were denied bail by the presiding judge during the last sitting on January 22, 2018.
        In the application for bail filed by his lawyer, Femi Falana, El-Zakzaky had prayed the court to give a mandatory order for his client and his wife to be flown abroad. Falana had informed the court that this was to enable them to receive proper medical attention since the Federal Government has glaringly failed to cure them of the injuries they sustained during the alleged army’s onslaught on their residence in December 2015. The judge in his ruling, however, ordered that El Zakzaky should be allowed by the government to bring doctors of his choice to examine him in the presence of doctors from the government before the date of the next sitting. Meanwhile during his trip to India some months back, the leader of the IMN refused treatment by the Indian doctors he was offered because he said he was scared of the doctors, as they were not his personal doctors. He also lamented the strict security surveillance he was placed under, while he was in India.