The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, has explained the reason why the Presidency has failed to obey Justice Gabriel Kolawole’s order on the release of the leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, Sheikh Ibraheem el-Zakzakky. According to Adesina, the government appealed the court ruling
Adesina made this known during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Tuesday. The President’s spokesman said the Attorney-General of the Federation at the time, Abubakar Malami (SAN), may have had his reasons for doing so since the government had the right to appeal the bail.

He said, “I know that the immediate past AGF in whose purview it was to make pronouncements on that, address the issue. If bail is granted and another case subsists and there is an immediate filing of appeal, you have to wait till it is dispensed with. So, that is a legal matter which is outside my purview but as a layman, an unlearned man as lawyers would call us, we know that until all cases are dispensed with, you don’t say that it has been concluded.”
Adesina said the matter had since been taken before a court in Kaduna State and the bail hearing would come up next Monday.

He, therefore, called on the Shiites to wait for the court to make its ruling.
Responding to allegations that the police ought not to have fired live bullets into the protesters on Monday, the President’s spokesman said the police deserve to be commended, adding that the death toll would have been much higher if the police did not show some restraint.