General Manager, Rivers State Newspaper Corporation, Mr Celestine Ogolo (left) exchanging pleasantries with the National deputy President of NUPPPPROW at the 3rd State Triennial Delegate Conference held yesterday. Photo: Ibioye Diama

No fewer than 11 wives of
detained policemen in the past 12 months at the Cross River State Police headquarters have cried out to the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase, to help  release their husbands and save their families from pain and psychological trauma.
The women, led by Mrs. Janet Ewa, wife  of  ASP  Raphael Ewa told newsmen in Calabar, that their husbands have put in several years of meritorious services with  the police force and their fatherland, but are now being humiliated and disgraced after  they staked their lives in fighting crime in Calabar.
Narrating the circumstance leading to the prolonged detention of their husbands, Mrs. Ewa said on 17th of April, 2014, at about 2.30 am, the officer in charge of the Special Anti- Robbery Squad, ASP Horsfall Minafuro, received  a distress call that armed robbers were operating at Atimbo, in the eastern axis of Calabar, and the man along with 11 other operatives “went to the scene of the robbery and upon seeing a police van, the robbers opened fire, prompting the SARS squad to engage the robbers in a gun battle  and six of them were killed while others escaped into the bush.”
The lady said during the exchange of gunfire, the windscreen of the police patrol van was damaged while the police recovered various items at the scene, comprising of firearms, expended ammunition, and the vehicle used by the robbers, a KIA PICANTO saloon, which were taken to the police headquarters as exhibits.
“Many people in the city were glad when they heard the news of the killing of the robbers particularly their ringleader, PIKIN and even the then Cross River State Security Adviser, Mr. Rekpene Bassey, wrote a letter to the State Police Command commending the police for the success over the robbery gang.
“The host community, Akai Efa where those robbers were terrorizing also wrote a letter of commendation to the police,  but it became a matter of concern to us and the people of Calabar that one of the mother’s of the robbery suspects, fearing the stigma and infamy that might come upon the family, generated a case of kidnapping against one of the SARS operative which eventually metamorphosed to the incarceration of our husbands for the past 12 months”.
The women said the salaries of their husbands were stopped since September 2014, which has inflicted severe hardship on them, and some of their children and wards have dropped out of school.
“I wish you could imagine the psychological trauma that we have gone through for the past 12 months that our husbands have been in detention for doing their work to help keep society safe,” she lamented.
They appealed to the Inspector General of  Police,  to help facilitate the release of their husbands.
“We appeal that you kindly listen to the supplications of your daughters and sisters and release our husbands who have done the police and their fatherland proud.”

Friday Nwagbara, Calabar