The sports fans arrested last Sunday by the police at the Dei-Dei area in Bwari Area Council of the FCT have been released after five days in detention.
City & Crime reported last Tuesday how police from the FCT command raided a local sports centre, popularly known as Gidan Dambe, in the evening of the day and arrested 307, including fans, kiosk owners and operator of the facility, Ali Zuma.
The operation, it was learnt, followed a land dispute between two residents. Our reporter who visited the area yesterday gathered that the police released 305 of the suspects on Friday, while continuing to hold the facility owner, Ali Zuma, along with another also arrested during the operation.
Speaking about their ordeal, one of the released persons, Muktar Abdullahi, said the police took them to the former SARS detention facility and kept them along with armed robbers and kidnappers for five days.
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Abdullahi said, “The police classified us into two on Friday after taking our statements. About half of us were given out on bail directly by the police for N1,000 each, while the remaining half others were taken to the court and fined N5,000 each.
Also speaking, one of the players, Musatafa Auwalu, aka Shagon-Gawuna, alleged that the number of the arrested people lost their money and other valuables during a search at the spot of the arrest, while those that surrendered their own at the police counter were able to recover half of the amounts following their release.
The FCT Police Command’s spokesperson, S.P. Josephine Adeh, was yet to respond to a text message sent to her cell phone over the development.
