A recent report has indicated that the Nigerian Police have arrested and detained at least 23 individuals suspected to be members of the Movement for Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) in Ikom Local Government Area of Cross River State.

The suspects were arrested by the police at a watch repairer’s workshop while others were picked up from their homes located within and around the area. However, wives of six of the arrested persons told Vanguard newspaper they have not been allowed access to their husbands since last Thursday when the arrest took place.

According to a Newspaper report, one Beatrice Ikechukwu Ani, whose husband was among the arrested said those men have not tested food since they were taken in.

In her words:

“Here with me are the wives of Nnamdi Okafor, John Ibe, Ebere Chukwu, Celestine Ndibe, Emmanuel Nachi and we are calling on the police to release our husbands immediately.

“When they were at Ikom they did not allow us to see or take food to them and from there they brought them to anti cultism unit (in Calabar) not even State CID for detention.

“The police took them to their houses to search and did not find anything incriminating but insisted on detaining them.”

She wonders if the police want her husband and the other arrested men to starve to death by not allowing them take food they brought for them.