Relatives of Detained Kano Bureau De Change Operators Protest

Aggrieved relatives of Bureau de Change (BDC) Operators who were arrested over alleged links with Boko haram protested on the streets of Kano on Wednesday morning, demanding that they charge them to court.

The BDC operators, who were arrested 11 months ago, have been in detention for allegedly facilitating the transfer of money to Boko Haram terrorists.

One of the women said, “We are looking to the government for help, we want justice to be done for us, our husbands should be charged to court, we’ve been promised that our husbands would be charged to court but that hasn’t been done, what does the government wants us to do”.

”We have young children, old people and the sick, we cannot even pay school fees, we cannot feed ourselves anymore, what do they want us to do, we are the ones who voted this government, we the poor ones are the ones who voted them into office, but they have locked up our husbands…” she lamented.

The women protested alongside their children to press home their demandSpeaking on parents of the group, Fatima Ahmad said her son was among the bureau de change operators in DSS custody, adding that they should either release them or charge them to court.

“They asked them to come and answer some questions, and after they went, they have not been released since, it has been almost a year now,” she said.

Ms Ahmad added that though they have been allowed to see them once, the conditions they were in is disheartening, adding that they have to go to family members for food, and some of the children had to drop out of school.

She urged stakeholders to as a matter of urgency, do the needful for them to have certainty and some clarity on what is going on.

A Joint operatives of the Army, Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), Department of State Services (DSS), and other security intelligence in a nationwide crackdown on operators of the open foreign exchange market in April 2021 arrested several persons in Kano.