Rivers Police Release 275 Boko Haram Suspects

The police in Rivers State Wednesday released the 275 Boko Haram suspects out of the 294 arrested on Sunday.

The release came three days after the suspects were arrested and detained at the state Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) in Port Harcourt.

The other 19 suspects who did not have any reasons whatsoever to move to Port Harcourt and who did not give any satisfactory account of their mission to Rivers State were recommended for further investigation.

Addressing journalists in Port Harcourt yesterday, the Deputy Commission of Police, SCID, Sam Okaula, said one of the suspects, Mohammed Musa, was discovered to be in possession of an expended ammunition which was hidden in a bag.

Okaula also disclosed that another suspect, Mohammed Lawal, who was crossing form Niger Republic to Nigeria in his Toyota Hiace Bus with unidentified persons into Port Harcourt was still being detained for further interrogation.

He said the 295 suspects were being driven into River State in 17 buses and that they were arrested between 2.am and 6.am on Sunday by two different teams of policemen led by the DPO of Nkpolu and Oyigbo Divisions on the instruction of the Commissioner of Police, Joseph Mbu.
According to Okaula, “It will be recalled that on Friday night, January 24, 2014, the commissioner of police received an alarming information that members of Boko Haram were being massively transported to Rivers State particularly, Port Harcourt from certain parts of the country for the purpose of causing havoc on innocent citizens.

“As it were, such information cannot be taken lightly hence all DPO’s, Area Commanders and operatives were alerted to be vigilant by the commissioner of police. What the police have done was a response to information especially considering the security situation in some parts of the country.
“It must be noted that there is no political colouration whatsoever as being speculated by some members of the public. The exercise is purely security routine and should be seen as such.”