The Department of State Services (DSS) has released two secondary school teachers who were taken into custody on July 7 during a raid conducted by Nigerian soldiers in the Aba Central Mosque and the residences of some Muslims in the town.
The soldiers had also arrested the Chief Imam of the mosque, Idris Bashir; his deputy, Mohammed Hassan; and eleven others over allegation that they were stockpiling guns and planning to manufacture bombs in their mosque and residences.
Those arrested were later taken to the 144 Battalion Barracks at Aba, where they were grilled and released after extensive search did not yield any weapon or dangerous materials in their homes or mosque. However, the two Islamic scholars: Abdulrahman Sani and Abubakar Abdulmajid, were detained by the security operatives of the DSS.
Meanwhile, Premium Times reported that when the chief Imam of the Aba Central Mosque, Idris Bashir, was contacted on Tuesday for update, he said that Sani and Abdulmajid had been released.
Sani later explained that after detaining him and his colleague for two weeks, the soldiers transferred them to the SSS, which released them after its investigation.
“The SSS told us that the soldiers were just doing their job and that after their investigation they were convinced that we were not planning anything bad,” Sani said.
“They also asked us to be vigilant and report any strange thing in our area to them. They asked us to come back next week to collect some of our items that they confiscated when they arrested us”, he said.
