Families plead for release of detained Boko Haram suspects

Relations of some detained Boko Haram suspects allegedly arrested by the defunct Joint Task Force (JTF), and believed to be in the custody of the Nigerian Army, have appealed to the army authorities to release their loved ones who they said are not members of the sect. The relations numbering about 10, who claimed to be mothers, wives and children of the detained men urged the army authorities to listen to their plea, the second since March this year when similar demonstration by some women took place. The Directorate of Civil Military Relations from the Defence Headquarters, Abuja, led by then Air Commodore Ademola Onitiju had during a visit to Maiduguri in March promised the readiness of the military authorities to assess the level of complicity or otherwise of the suspects in army detention. “We will look into their files and cases with a view to assessing the level of their involvement or otherwise in the Boko Haram activities. Those found not to have anything to do with the sect would be recommended for release while those found culpable would face trial,” he told some residents during a Civil-Military Relations forum. But the relations of the detained suspects on Thursday stormed Borno Radio Television station (BRTV) asking for the release of the suspects. They alleged that the military authorities hoodwinked them in March by promising to release their husbands, sons and children. Ya’hadiza Bulama Musa, a mother and staff of the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, who led the protest said their husbands and children were arrested by soldiers some months ago. She said two of her sons, Mustapha Tijjani Bukar and Allamin Sule Tijani, both graduates, were arrested in a car “while driving on the street leading to their house at Ngomari-junction on June 6, 2013,” adding that she was yet to see them since. Her words: “Our children are not Boko Haram members; they were arrested innocently and wrongly by the JTF who labelled them as Boko Haram members. I am a mother and should know my children better. If they were Boko Haram members I would not be here wasting my time. But I know my children; they are educated just like their father. “I have written several letters to the then JTF and even the present 7 Division in September and October but they never listened to me or respond to me. The last time I was there the commander chased me away that they don’t want to see anyone again. I became afraid and could not go back there again. If they are dead let them tell me so that I can mourn them in peace.” Another woman, Halima Isa in an emotion laden voice disclosed that her son, Yahaya, 30, a furniture maker, was picked up by soldiers while preparing to observe Muslim prayers at his Jiddari-Polo home in Maiduguri metropolis. “He was in the bedroom with his wife when soldiers came in to arrest him, accusing him of being a Boko Haram member. He was innocent. That boy was feeding and taking care of me as well as his pregnant wife. I have nobody except him. Until he was detained, he was paying my medical bills for hypertension and ulcer. We are not Boko Haram mothers, we are Fulanis from Adamawa, and God knows we don’t know any Boko Haram member. Please government should help us.” Bashir Zarami, a 14-year-old boy repeatedly cried as he recounted the arrest and detention of his father, which he said forced him to drop from school. “My father was selling provision at Bayan Quarters area and I was with him on the day soldiers came to our shop, about eight months ago. They took him away after beating us. Since then, I have been left alone without anybody to care for me. I don’t know my mother because my father brought me up alone. Now I have no one, I cannot go to school. I now beg to eat.” Similarly, Aisha Muhammed Luwaye said her husband was arrested on the day the wife of a police officer in their neighborhood (Bayan Railway Quarters) was shot dead by suspected Boko Haram members. “We were at home on that day when soldiers came for mass arrest of people around our area. My husband was among the men arrested that day and since then, he has not been released. It is over a year now, and I am left alone to take care of our four children. I was pregnant then, but when I later delivered, the child died because I had no means of taking care of him. I swear by the Holy Quran that he is innocent. He can’t even hurt a fly,” she maintained