By Emma Una

CALABAR—Wives of the 11 policemen, who have been in detention for the past 12 months at Cross River State Police Command headquarters have cried out to the Inspector General of Police, Mr Solomon Arase, to release their husbands and save their families from pain and psychological trauma.

IGP Arase

The women, led by Mrs Janet Ewa, wife of ASP Raphael Ewa, visited Vanguard office yesterday, after their weekly prayer sessions for the release of their husbands, said their husbands, who had put in several years of meritorious services for their fatherland, were now being humiliated and disgraced after they staked their lives in fighting crime in Calabar.

Narrating to Vanguard the circumstance that led to the prolonged detention of their husbands, Mrs Ewa said on April 17, 2014, at about 2.30a.m., the officer in charge of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, ASP Horsefall Minafuro, received a distress call that armed robbers were operating at Atimbo, in the eastern axis of Calabar and the man, along with 11 other operatives, went to the scene.

She said: “The robbers engaged the SARS squad in a gun battle and six of them were killed, while others escaped.”

She said police recovered firearm, expended ammunition and a Kia Picanto car from the robbers, which were taken to the police headquarters as exhibits.

She added: “One of the mothers of the robbery suspects, to avoid stigma, generated a case of kidnapping against one of the SARS operatives, which eventually metamorphosed to the incarceration of our husbands for over 12 months.”

The women said their husband’s salaries had been stopped since September 2014, saying this had inflicted severe hardship on them and their children and wards, who had to drop out of school, adding “we appeal that you kindly listen to the supplications of your daughters and sisters and release our husbands, who have done police and their fatherland proud.”