I have not seen a situation whereby government attack traders in nigeria, theirs one popular Nigerian bitcoin trader called blord, government have tried to severally to arrest B.lord and they could not arrest him,even when economic financial crimes commission [Efcc] filed case against b.lord, the b.lord won them in court of law, nigeria government is not against whosoever that is into cryptocurrency trading, even some of the politicians is even saving their funds with cryptocurrency especially bitcoin
A person who does not have any illegal dealings will not be afraid to defend himself against allegations leveled against him by individuals or government. I followed the Blord trial closely, it took about four years for the trial to reach a verdict, the courted ruled that the crypto traded be compensated with a certain amount of money and all his properties returned to him.
The men in the vehicle with OP were too scared to defend themselves, their inability to speak coherently gave the police the impression that they had something to hide. Nigeria can be a tough place especially for men, I never had to worry about police searches or anything like that.