Women from Okhorimi community in Benin City on Monday stormed the Edo House of Assembly, bringing their children to plead for the release of their husbands arrested three weeks earlier.
Carrying placards, the women, some with infants strapped to their backs, said the detention of six men had left their families devastated and their children out of school.
The Police Command in the state had disclosed that the men were arrested for possession of prohibited weapons and a suspected human skull.
Speaking on behalf of the protesters, Mrs Abieyuwa Otasowei said the arrests were indiscriminate.
“We are not here to fight. We came to beg. Our husbands are innocent. Since they were taken away, our children have not been going to school. We just want them back,” Otasowei, wife of one of the detainees, said.
She explained that the weapons were reportedly found in a public field frequently used by youths from both Okhorimi and neighbouring communities for football.
“They searched our homes and hotels in the community, yet they didn’t find anything. The field where they said they found the guns is open to everybody, even those who fight us in the community come there to play,” she added.
Appealing to both the state government and the Oba of Benin, the women begged for forgiveness if the dethroned chief priest in the community, known as Ohen, had erred in any way.
“We are begging the Oba. He is a father to us all. We are pleading because of our children and our future,” she said.
She urged Governor Monday Okpebholo to withdraw the charges against the detainees, which led to their remand at Oko custodial centre.
(NAN)