About 10 members of the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) group were detained by the police at the Transcorp Hilton Junction area, Maitama, Abuja, while BBOG convener, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, alongside others, was whisked away in a police van to the FCT Police Command.
The group’s planned BBOG March to the Villa was supposed to have taken off at the city’s Unity Fountain. It was, however, interrupted by the police who cordoned off the protesters. But while the intercept lasted, another batch of the group moved on to the State House. The second team had met at Eagle Square, a few blocks from the Unity Fountain, while the first group kept the police busy.
Spokesman of the FCT Police Command, Anjuguri Manzah, later released a statement titled: “Prof. Ezekwesili was not detained by the police.” It insisted the command did not arrest or detain Ezekwesili and some BBOG members as “speculated”
He said “It is pertinent to state that they were only brought to the command to ensure there was no breakdown of law and order, as some members of the group reacted violently and broke down security barriers set up by the police to restrict their protest to Unity Fountain. he said, “The members of the group were addressed by the Commissioner of Police FCT, Sadiq Abubakar Bello, who reiterated the commitment of the command to protect life and property and enjoined the BBOG members to go about their lawful businesses,”.
Ezekwesili insisted they violated my freedom of movement by locking me in broad daylight at the Unity Fountain. ‘’This is a democracy. Officer Tina Ishaya just again refused to let me out of their wall “The Government of President Buhari instructed the Inspector General of Police to detain me and other members of BBOG Nigeria here at the Unity Fountain.”
She alleged that when she asked the commissioner to state the reason for the arrest of some member of BBOG, she was rebuffed. She said “Without stating the reason for our arrest and detention, Commissioner of Police at the FCT Command Bello asked us to be let out of their station. We insisted on a formal charge and release but he refused us’’. ‘Sic’
