By Samuel Aruwan
There is a newly wedded bride amongst the 486 northerners being held in Abia state for allegedly being members of the Boko Haram sect.
Leader of Hadeja Peoples Association in Abia state, Malam Idris Wanzam, said this yesterday.
He added that the bride was detained along with a little girl who was accompanying her to her groom from the North, and that he was stopped from providing essential materials to the detainees.
He said: “Sincerely, I am sad because of this situation our people are in, they are held in a military barracks. I was stopped from seen them with some basic essentials they need. I know over 70 of them. I can vow that they have nothing to do with Boko Haram. I was threatened by the operatives that if I don’t leave, they will arrest me too.
“The most unfortunate thing is there is even a new bride who just married, but was arrested barely a week along with her escort, a very young girl.”
On whether it was mentioned to the security operatives that she was a newly wedded bride or not, he said: “We went with the husband and they told us that the issue of releasing her was not their business until they were done with their investigation. They are all there and that is why we are worried.”
Chief Imam of Aba Mosque, Malam Idris Bashir, said: “The push has gotten to the wall, this is apathy and we are not happy about it. It is something that our governors, elders and former leaders to stand up and talk if not we will one day be limited to the north alone as Nigerians.”
