All the 43 traders conducting their businesses at Nkwo Nnewi Market, including members of the Nnewi Motor Spare Parts Dealers Association in Nnewi North Local Government Area of Anambra State, arrested and detained on allegations of “terrorism”, “arson” and “murder” leveled against them by the Anambra State Police Command, have been released. |They regained their freedom last night on orders of the Force Headquarters Abuja flowing public outcries trailing their unlawful arrest and detention by Police,” the Onitsha-based Int’l Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law (Intersociety), which led the fight for their release, said on Sunday afternoon.

The traders, who were accused of being members of the Indigenous People of Bafra (IPOB) and of killing a police officer during a protest, were arrested in the evening of November 23, 2018 near their market stalls “and detained for eight days without trial and paraded on orders of the Inspector Gen of Police for phantom offenses of “terrorism”, “arson” and “murder”,” Intersociety recalled in a statement signed by Emeka Umeagbalasi and Chidinma Udegbunam.

“While 33 of them were criminally paraded on Sunday, 25th November 2018; ten others were detained but excluded from the list of those criminally paraded. One of them, Abubakar Mohammed, arrested alongside the innocent Igbo traders was deliberately removed from the list of those criminally paraded on account of his ethno-religious identity,” the statement said.

According to Intersociety, “The 33 paraded traders were released relatively unconditionally, while four out of the remaining reportedly lost N1.2m (N300,000 each) to a police extortion racketeer operating within the State Police Command using an unnamed legal practitioner as a front or points-man. It is possible that the ten persons were excluded from the list of those paraded because of their acceptance under duress to pay huge sums as criminal bail fees.

“The affected traders were said to have been threatened by the police extortion racketeer to deny offering such criminal bail fees, said to have been handed over to the police lawyer front. Intersociety, earlier this morning spoke to the Chairman of the Motor Spare Parts Dealers Association in the Market who confirmed their release and criminal loss of N1.2m; saying the affected traders were either afraid to speak out or under pressure to deny same to avoid possible police reprisal.”

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