Reps probe arrest of 320 B’Haram suspects by police

  
The House of Representatives on Tuesday resolved to investigate the arrest of 320 suspected Boko Haram members by the Rivers State Police Command.

A member from Kano State and Deputy Minority Leader, Mr. Suleiman Kawu, who moved a motion on the issue, told the House that the arrest was an infringement of the fundamental human rights of the suspects.

Kawu argued that the suspects were “legitimate” businessmen and women, mostly petty traders, who were travelling from Kano to Rivers State.

He also claimed that some of them were searching for “menial jobs.”

Kawu recalled that the suspects were travelling in “a convoy of 17 buses” before the police arrested them at the boundary between Rivers and Imo states on January 24.

“The arrest of the 320 men and women has raised several issues that require immediate attention of very well-meaning Nigerians for the security, economy and political well-being of the country and its citizens.

“Such manner of arrest and injustice portend obvious danger capable of breeding political instability in the already overheated polity, as the suspects were known to be law-abiding citizens, whose business is well known,” he stated.

The Speaker, Mr. Aminu Tambuwal, who presided over the session, referred the matter to the Joint Committee on Police Affairs/Human Rights for investigation.