Families of arrested Jos car dealers cry out over suspects’ whereabouts

The wives and children of two persons held by the police since 2014 after the soccer viewing centre explosion in Jos, Plateau State capital, are yet to know the fate of their bread winners, more than one year after.

Auwal Mohammed and Kyari Garba, two employees of a car dealer in Jos, PAMA II Motors, were arrested by the police on May 29, 2014 over allegations that a car they had sold on May 20 was used in the bombing of the viewing centre on May 24.

The explosion killed three persons at the centre.

The two suspects were transferred to Abuja, where they were detained at the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), according to their employers, and their counsel, Barrister, Saidu Aliyu Sangei, who has long won a court judgment ordering for his clients’ release.

Wives of the two suspects, who spoke to Daily Trust on the ordeal of their husbands, said they have waited for over a year without a word from their spouses, expressing worries that the long wait was worsened by the long silence from the police and failure to charge them to court.

One of the women, 35-year-old Aisha, wife of Auwal Mohammed, said: “I have not heard from my husband. Our three children are worried about the whereabouts of their father. The police have not told us anything. We are worried.”

This is just as Hajiya Murjanatu, the 23-year-old wife of Kyari Garba told Daily Trust during a visit to her residence that she and the five children became worried that more than one year after the arrest of her spouse, the police refused to charge him to court or release him.

Meanwhile, the counsel of the two car dealers, Barrister Sangei, had on November 19, 2014, proceeded to the Federal High Court in Abuja, where he obtained a judgment on June 4, this year, ordering the police to release the suspects from their detention.

The judgement order, which the counsel said was served on the police, said the law enforcement agency did not make appearances during the mention and the hearing of the case.

The judgment order granted prayers sought by the applicants that the arrest, detention and continuous detention of the applicants constituted a violent breach of their fundamental human rights.

The judgment, which was passed by Justice G.O. Kolawale also ordered the police to release the applicants from their custody, without being charged before the court.

But the police were yet to release the applicants, five months after they were served with judgement order, while their relatives claimed that the whereabouts of their loved ones were not known for several months now.

Several attempts to speak with the police have been unsuccessful and a text message sent to the force’s public relations officer was not responded to up till the time of filing this report.