Hundreds of members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria trekked from Kaduna to Zaria to mark Arba’een day in Kaduna on Monday.

The march came less than a week after an attack on the group at Dakasoye village in Garun Malam Local Government Area of Kano state.

The attack, which claimed about 20 persons, mostly women and children and injured more than 50 others, was carried out by a male bomber who joined the Shi’ite procession.

Leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria in Kaduna, Sheikh Mohammed Mukhtar Sahabi, told journalists before the trek commenced at Layin Kosai in Tudun Wada, that Boko Haram insurgents could not stop the procession.

“If we consider the online report that Boko Haram has set out to wipe out Shi’ite in Nigeria as threat enough to stop us, then nobody will practice his/ her religion because these people attack churches, mosques, houses, motor parks and markets”, Daily Trust quoted him as saying.

“We have to face the challenge, because if Imam Hussain had not faced the challenge, we will not be commemorating or celebrating him.

“These people who are doing this want to paralyze everything. We see this as a test from Allah, so we are not worried about the threat. How can we be worried about ghosts?

“I can categorically say that people interested in Nigeria’s wealth are responsible for terrorism. If not, why is it that the crisis is only in areas where they have oil”, he said.

On the procession, he said, “The trek is not fabricated and not something done out of the religion. The option of trekking to Zaria is synonymous to the trek to Hussainiyyah Baqiyyatullah.

“It is the same thing with the option that if you do not have money to perform Hajj, you can perform Eid-el-Fitr in your village.

“We embark on the symbolic trek to Hussainiyyah Baqiyyatullah, to recall the trials and tribulations faced by members of the prophet’s household, who were chained and dragged barefoot in the scorching desert from Karbala”.