Some women from Agan community, a few kilometres from Makurdi, the capital city of Benue State, on Friday turned out in numbers to protest against what they termed the indiscriminate arrest of their children in the area.
The protesters said they were aggrieved by the manner in which security operatives in the state were arresting their children indiscriminately.
One of the protesters, who simply identified herself as Nguyan, said that there had been indiscriminate arrests of youths in the area in recent times.
Nguyan said, “Many of our children had been arrested in the past few days, security men would just swoop on this community arresting our youths.”
Recall that two indigenes of Kano, who were in transit to the eastern part of the country, were recently killed by some youths in Agan community.
The state governor, Hyacinth Alia, in a swift response to the killing of the Kano indigenes through his Chief Press Secretary, Kula Tersoo, said that five people had been arrested by the police.
Meanwhile, the Benue State Police Command, while reacting to the protest on Friday, advised against any protest which it said was capable of distracting its ‘clearing operations’ ongoing across the state.
In a statement issued by the spokesperson for the State Command, DSP Udeme Edet, the command called on members of the public to provide the command with useful information that would help in its operation.
