One month after they were arrested by the military and handed over to the police on the allegation of being members of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, the Akwa Ibom Police Command claims it does not have information about Uduak Dickson Akpan and Lawrence Saviour Akpan.
Dickson and Lawrence who are blood brothers were picked up by the military during a crackdown on Essien Udim local government after clashes between soldiers and hoodlums in the area.
But their family members have denied claims by the army that the brothers were IPOB members.
They also accused the Military and the Police of arbitrarily arresting and detaining them at the Ikot Akpan Abia Police Headquarters without proper investigation, FIJ reports.
Uduak, a father of three whose wife birthed her third child five days ago, was arrested by the military and handed to the Police at Nto Edino Village in Obot Akara Local Government Area when he was conveying a woman and her sick child to a traditional healer with his motorcycle.
Lawrence, a father of two children who is also a barber and commercial motorcycle operator, was arrested by the military at Essien Udim Local Government Area and transferred to the Police.
Idara Okure, a friend of Uduak said that “He rides bike to support his family. He is not an IPOB member. The woman he was taking for treatment ran away with her child when the military stopped them. I wish I could help him get out of there but I don’t have anything. I can only pray.”
FIJ reports that Uduak’s wife, who just gave birth to a child, has not stopped crying since her husband was detained by policemen who would not allow her to see him.
“Although the police confirmed that he was with them at Ikot Akpan Abia, they denied me access and I could not talk to him,” Paulinus Isong, Lawrence’s cousin, said.
“I had to summon the courage to go and look for him there because we heard that those who go to look for their loved ones there are arrested. I don’t believe him to be an IPOB member.
“At that time, soldiers were arresting anyone they saw at Essien Udim and no one would know that you were arrested and then they label you IPOB member.”
It was gathered from policemen that only the Inspector General of Police could order their release.
Police and the army have continued to engage in mass arrests of young men in the Southeast and Southsouth, labelling innocent persons as IPOB members and violate their rights. They are tortured and detained in black cells where they are starved, suffer from extreme heat and threatened with execution.
Investigation showed that 90 percent of those arrested are innocent.
Odiko Ogbeche Macdon, the public relations officer of the Akwa Ibom Police Command, evaded questions from when contacted about the detention of the Akpan brothers.
“I don’t have that information at my disposal,” Macdon said and dropped the call.
