About thirty men and ten women on Sunday were arrested in a hotel at Ogidi, Idemili North Local Government Area, Anambra state, by the Nnewi-Ichi command of the Special Anti Robbery Squad, SARS, of Anambra State Police Command as part of its efforts to rid the state of criminals and undesirable elements.
Vanguard gathered that a tip off to the SARS operatives that the hotel breeds criminals, stormed there at about 9.00pm and arrested all that were within reach and took them to its base at Nnewi-Ichi.
Some of the suspects who were later granted bail told newsmen that they were assaulted by the security operatives in the name of lookiing for criminals and their money forcefully removed from them.
According to the proprietor of the hotel, Mr Charles OnyIdo, "I feel bad with the raid, nobody comes to the hotel again, how can SARS from Nnewi-Ichi come to this place without informing their men in Ogidi and Awkuzu".
"They stormed here in a commando way with clubs, machetes and guns and ordered everybody to lie down without committing any offence, you can see many of our chairs and bottles of beer were broken".
Mr. Onyudo who was visibly angry said our business has been paralyses for three consecutive days following the police raid and we were all detained and money extorted from us for the bail by the for bail"
"One Chukwujekwu Nwaka lost N16,000 to them, Chinwendu Ifekwe paid N12,000 for his bail, Chidi Ogbonna paid N10,000 and Obinna Nwabufor N10,000 for his bail also and at the end of the day they did not arrest any criminal in the raid"
"I spent about N20,000 for bailing and transportation of those arrested to bring them back to the hotel and I may be looosing about N4million for these three days we were not in business and damages done by the raid" he said.
A reliable police sources disclosed that before the raid, the Ogidi SARS was informed by the Nnewi Ichi counter part, but the person on duty did not record the presence of the Nnewi Ichi SARS when they left for the operation which is now a source of worry to the state police command.
The police claimed also that weeds suspected to be Indian hemp were recovered during the raid, while some female suspects accused the SARS operatives of dehumanizing them and not having respect for womanhood by not allowing them to dress up and also beating, exposing and inserting their fingers in their private parts.
The Anambra State SARS Commander Mr. Ben Abang when contacted confirmed the raid.