Twenty three people suspected to be members of Mass Movement for the Actualisation for Biafra, MASSOB, have been arrested by the police in Ikom Local Government Area of Cross River State.
The suspected MASSOB members were arrested when the police swopped on some of them at a watch repairer’s workshop while others were picked from their homes located within and around the town.
According to Vanguard, wives of some of six of the arrested persons said they have not been allowed access to their husbands since Thursday last week when the arrest took place.
Mrs Beatrice Ikechukwu Ani, wife of Ikechukwu Ani who led five other women said that their husbands have been without food since their arrest.
“Here with me are the wives of Nnamdi Okafor, John Ibe, Ebere Chukwu, Celestine Ndibe , Emmanuel Nachi and we calling on the police tp release our husbands immediately”
She said their husbands were at a watch repairing workshop when the police came and took them to the Ikom police station and from there to Calabar-
“When they were at Ikom they did not allow us to see or take food to them and from there they brought them to anti cultism unit not even State CID for detention”.
Mrs Beatrice said their husbands are not cultists or criminals so detaining them among cultists and criminals without food was not unjust.
“The police took them to their houses to search and did not find anything incriminating but insisted on detaining them.
The State Police Spokesperson, DSP Irene Ugbo, said she was not aware of the arrests but a source at the Anti Cultism Unit says the AIG Zone Six and the State Police Commissioner have a function at the unit so nobody would be allowed access to the unit, Vanguard reports.
“You can come back tomorrow morning. No one will have time for you today. You can see chaired arranged , the AIG and Commissioner of Police are coming here any time from now”. He told the women