El-Zakzaky leaves Indian hospital for Nigeria

.As daughter expresses worry over health condition of IMN leader

Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky, the leader of Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), has begun his return journey back to Nigeria from India after disagreeing with the terms of treatment offered by hospital where he and his wife were taken for medical attention.

According to a tweet by the Zakzaky office, El-Zakzaky was expected to depart India at 17:00 hours local time on Thursday.

An accompanying video clip in the twitter handle also showed El-Zakzaky explaining that the Indian hospital had agreed to allow him and his wife, Zeenat, to come back to Nigeria following a stalemate over the choice of doctors to attend to the cleric.

Spokesman for IMN, Ibraheem Musa, confirmed that the Shi’ite leader is expected to leave India yesterday (Thursday) at 5pm local time.

Meanwhile, his daughter, Suhaila Zakzaky has said that her father is suffering from lead and cadmium poisoning that may be from shrapnel in his body.

She told the BBC that the poisoning might be as a result of shrapnel in his body “from when he was shot in 2015 when the Nigerian Army raided our home.”

According to Suhaila, her father had an eye operation in Nigeria to remove shrapnel lodged in one of his eyes, but his sight has since been declining ever since.

While expressing concern about the health condition of her father, she said that “I am really worried, especially because of the lead and cadmium poisoning. His doctors say if it gets to a certain level his organs could start failing and that’s really scary because that means he could just die at any moment.”

Ms. Zakzaky added that she had spoken to her father on Wednesday morning and he was unhappy that armed police were outside his room and that he would not be treated by his own chosen doctors.

“He no longer felt safe and might choose to leave,’’ she had predicted.

This backs up a medical report received by an Indian Shia group offering to pay the IMN leader’s bills at Medanta Hospital over the discovery that the sheikh had been diagnosed with lead poisoning.

Meanwhile, Nigeria’s government has apologised to India for the sheikh’s “unruly behaviour.’’

According to the report, the IMN leader has been making unreasonable demands, wanting to move into a five-star hotel and demanding the removal of police protection provided by the Indian authorities.

On Thursday, reports from India showed that the hospital had agreed to El-Zakzaky’s request to use known and appointed doctors for his treatment.

In a new videotape, the representative of Islamic Human Right Commission (IHRC) said the issue in contention has been resolved and that El-Zakzaky has gone ahead to receive treatment with doctors that were earlier appointed by him.

A member of the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) said the attitude of the Indian government portrayed El-Zakzaky as a common criminal when no court in Nigeria has convicted him.

The source said that the Indian government has given El-Zakzaky ultimatum to leave Indian soil if he refuses to receive treatment from unknown doctors billed to treat him.

 “I just received a very worrying news from the Indian government that ultimatum has been given to the Leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria(IMN) to leave India if he does not agree to the Doctors specified to treat him,” the source stated