by crossriverwatch admin
Gabriel Samson Ikat, a taxi driver in Calabar has in the past two months been incarcerated by the State Security Service, SSS, for allegedly driving an off color taxi.
Mrs. Maria Samson Ikat, wife of the taxi driver told CrossRiverWatch that her husband was arrested by men of Operation MESA, the Cross River State joint patrol security outfit in the outskirts of Calabar while plying the Ikang – Bakassi road on the 20th of April, 2013 for driving an off color taxi and detained for four days at the143 Amphibious Battalion, Akim before being transferred to the SSS quarters at Nyahasang in the outskirts of Calabar.
“Since his detention I have not seen him and I have taken my five children to the SSS Quarters to see their father but they would not let us see him”.
The lady who said she now assist people to plant water leaf in their farms to enable her get money to buy food for her children appealed to the authorities to release her husband or “let us know why he is being detained for so long and now my children cannot write examination in their schools because I cannot afford the money to pay their fees”.
The mother of five said since she met her husband, he has been into legal business and cannot tell what crime her husband may have committed that would warrant his being detained for so long without allowing his family see him.
“He was an Okada (bike rider) and when Okada was banned in Calabar he got a car on hire purchase with which he operates as taxi along Ikang- Bakassi road and has not had problems with anyone until the 20th of May when he was arrested by soldiers”.
At the SSS quarters at Nyahasang, there was no one to talk to CrossRiverWatch as the officer at the post said the only person who can “give any answers to your questions is in Abuja”.
Barrister James Ibor, a rights activist in Calabar told CrossRiverWatch that “the continued detention of Gabriel Ikat without trial constitutes an abuse of his fundamental human rights”.
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