After a long wait with no sign of their children, mostly students allegedly wrongfully taken away by security forces in a swoop on Oporoza in search of members of Niger Delta Avengers, Women of Gbaramatu Kingdom in Warri South West Local Government Area, Delta State, today peacefully protested in Warri, calling for the release of their children (10 students) arrested and detained by soldiers since 47 days.
The placard carrying women protesters, joined by the National Association of Gbaramatu Students (NAGS), gave President Muhammadu Buhari, whose children are studying peacefully abroad, one- week ultimatum to release the students. They threatened to march to the Presidency in Abuja if the students were not released.
This comes as the Ijaw People Development Initiative, IPDI and Ijaw Human Rights Monitor, IHRM, condemned the continued detention of the suspects without trial. The women led by Chief (Mrs.) Vero Tangnowei chanted solidarity songs, calling for the release of the students. Some of the placards read: “This is pure oppression, stop labeling them as members of NDA,” “This is wickedness taken too far,” “This is nothing but high level impunity,” “46 days on nowhere to be found,” “Mr. President, Free our sons now,” “Free our sons”, “ Mr. President, where are my brothers” and “ We need them back in school.”
Other inscriptions were “Free our students,” “Mr. President, free our brothers, time is running out”, “They are not NDA, they are students of Gbaramatu Grammar School Oporoza,” “Let peace reign,” “Just Bring Back our sons alive”, “10 boys are still in detention,” and “Free our brothers, they are the future.”
The protesters accused the military of arresting, framing and taking the 10 students into custody under the guise of being militants for more than one and half months. Tangbowei said that the whereabouts of the 10 students are unknown till date.
She stated: “Let me take this medium to tell Buhari and his group of people that we give them only one week to bring back our children , if they do not want to bring our children, as their mothers, we will march to Abuja so that he can kill us.”
Tangbowei rejected claims that the 10 arrested students were members of Niger Delta Avengers and clarified that they are students of Gbaramatu Grammar School, Oporoza as well as stewards to the Gbaramatu Traditional Council.
Also NAGS’ Asst. National Secretary, Freeborn Abraye, lamented that the students missed writing the 2016 West African Examination, WAEC. “Our students are suffering from what they know nothing about. They do not have any clue of what is going on this country. What we are telling the government is that they should release our students.
“Those boys are not Niger Delta Avengers. They are pure students of Gbaramatu Grammar School, Oporoza. So, we appealing to the government to look into this matter critically and release them immediately.”
Mrs. Endurance Oyatiedei’s 17-year- old only son, Friday, was among the students taken away by the military. She regretted that her son could not write WAEC examination because of the arrest and appealed to Buhari to release him.
The 10 Gbaramatu students allegedly arrested during the military invasion of Oporoza are Ebi Emma (SS1 Student, Gbaraun Grammar School, Oporoza),Philip (Palace Cook) Andrew (Palace driver) and Tebe-ebi ( Palace tailor). Others were Emotimifagha (student of Gbaraun Grammar School, Oporoza) John (Student of Gbaraun Grammar School, Oporoza) Solomon teiwei (Student of Gbaraun Grammar School, Oporoza) Oromoni (Community boy), Godspower Abraham (Student of Gbaraun Grammar School, Oporoza) and Bright (mechanic).
National presidents of IPDI and IHRM, Austin Ozobo and Fred Brisibe respectively said the arrest of innocent students by government underlines intelligence failure on the part of government, while their continued detention without being charged to court is a case of impunity.
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