A video posted on YouTube by an Adamu Ahmed shows senior army officers appealing to protesting Shi’ites to give way for the convoy of the Chief Of Army Staff in Zaria. It is said to be the confrontation that led to the massacre of perhaps hundred of Shi’ites in the ancient city. The protesters refused the military men passage, ranting in Hausa that the Army has killed their people before. The officers tried to placate the leaders of the protest while young people in the background wielding sticks, stones and machetes yelled ‘Allahu Akbar’ and shouted war cries.
Eventually, the video cuts to a scene where the road is cleared with burning tires on the road with gunshots being heard. The killing accusations may be referencing the killing of sons of the Shi’ite leader, Ibrahim El Zakzaky last year, but it is not readily clear.
“Kill us if you like, but know that our children are there to continue with the movement we started, one protester told the army,” one protester told an army officer that looks like the army spokesman, Col Sani Usman, who assured him that no one meant to kill them.