In this second part of this ongoing heart-wrenching investigation, JULIANA FRANCIS follows the trail of Southeast women who have spent over four agonising years searching for husbands and fathers who vanished after being arrested by Nigerian security forces. Speaking with a prominent Southeast activist, Francis uncovers chilling accounts of ongoing disappearances. She also confronts the Imo State Police Command. She reveals the tense drama that unfolded after a Freedom of Information request was sent to the Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS).
Mrs Egole Nwachukwu is the wife of Reverend Cletus Nwachukwu. She also tells her sad story of how her husband went missing after being arrested.
She recalled that the arresting team was a combination of Police and soldiers, among others.
She said, “The incident happened in 2021. My husband, my child and I were arrested. We were taken to SCIID, Owerri, Imo State, where we were locked up for two weeks and later transferred to Abuja. My child and I were released, and since then, I have not set eyes on my husband or known his whereabouts till now.
“They detained us at SCIID before taking us to Abuja. The moment we alighted from the vehicle, I saw my husband, and that was the last time I saw him. I don’t know if he is alive or dead.
“The Police said that we were arrested for supporting IPOB. I was detained there for a year and four months before I was charged in court. This is just to summarise everything because it is a very long story. The people who came to arrest us were a combined team of police and soldiers. I was granted bail at the court.”
ALSO READ: #Investigation: Give Us Our Husbands, Dead Or Alive, Southeast Women Confront FG (PART 1)
As the reporter continued to ask more questions, Egole broke down, weeping as if her heart were breaking.
She sniffles: “I don’t know the whereabouts of my husband. I have not heard from him! I don’t know whether he is alive or dead! The name of my husband is Reverend Cletus Nwachukwu Egole.
“I can’t even begin to recount the terrible experiences I passed through in that place. I didn’t know that my husband’s brother, who lives in Port Harcourt, was also arrested. As it is, we don’t know if we are searching for my husband or his younger brother.
“My brother-in-law is also a pastor; he lives with his wife and three children in Port Harcourt. Since his arrest, we’ve not seen or heard from him. His wife calls almost every day, asking if anyone has heard or seen him. Whenever I think about my situation and hers, everything becomes too complicated. I don’t know what else to do.
“There is still another person, Chinoso, we don’t know where he is, since he was also arrested, that was the last time we saw or heard from him. We are trying to manage with our children in these very difficult times. I keep consoling and encouraging myself, but occasionally, I break down because I am human, too. The most painful thing for me is that I don’t know if my husband is alive or not.”
Nigeria Bar Association’s Representative at the General Council of the Bar, Mr Ike Augustine, Esq., said: “ Section 35 of the Constitution provides that anybody arrested in connection with any offence must be brought before a court within a reasonable time and reasonable time means 24 hours or 48 hours as the case may be and not otherwise. The Constitution is supreme, and any law in conflict with it is null and void to the extent of its inconsistency.
“The practice by security agencies in detaining suspects beyond the constitutionally prescribed limit without trial before a competent court is most condemnable, illegal, null, and void.
“The Administration of Criminal Justice Act and Administration of Criminal Justice Law of the various States contain copious provisions to ensure the safeguard of suspects and Defendants arrested and detained for alleged offences, but the law is being observed in breach.
“To ensure decongestion of the various detention facilities, arresting authorities must comply strictly with the Constitution and applicable administration of Criminal Justice Law by making sure criminal suspects or detainees are not detained beyond the specified period.
“The practice of abandoning a person in detention after obtaining a remand order is abhorrent and runs counter to the spirit and letter of the Constitution. Under the applicable provisions of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law, there is a need for regular inspection of the various detention facilities to ensure that citizens, either granted bail or charged to court, persons who have been arrested and detained for alleged offences.”
A human rights activist, based in Southeast, Mr Egwuatu Chuks, who has been monitoring cases of illegal arrest, illegal detention, and enforced disappearances of suspects, said: “There are so many cases of fundamental rights abuses in Southeast, and most of the cases are severe. The cases should be more than a thousand, and I have witnessed many.
“I have so many people who are very close to me, who are victims of abuse of their fundamental rights. Take me for instance; there was a time a team of law enforcement officers stormed my apartment and abducted my siblings. It was a combined team of the DSS, the Nigerian Army, the Nigerian police, and some other sister security agencies.
“Later, after pressure from so many concerned people, my siblings were released. But then, that is where I got to understand how these people operate in a very lawless way. Most times, they will claim they have an order from the court to come and arrest.
“Whenever a lawyer asked to see the so-called Order, they wouldn’t have it. In most cases, they will abduct people and say it’s an arrest. After abducting, they’ll now rush to court to obtain a warrant for arrest or detention.”
Chuks said that such lawlessness among law enforcement operatives would not have continued if the judiciary had not been complicit in it.
He mused, “The court will give these law enforcement officers a warrant to detain somebody for seven days, and after seven days, the same set of officers will return to court to ask for three months. After three months, they will go back to ask for three months, and it continues just like that while the suspects languish in detention.”
He disclosed that Mrs Calista Ifedi, with her husband, Mr Sunday Ifedi, were abducted by a combined team of law enforcement in 2021 and then later found to be in the custody of the DSS.
He said: “To date, they have not been arraigned in court. They denied them access to a lawyer. They denied this couple access to any of their relations, which is a grave abuse of fundamental rights. The couple’s children were minors, and DSS refused to disclose the reason for the abduction and long detention.
“Almost everything had been done, including getting the popular Barrister Ifeanyi Ejiofor involved in the case, so that the couple could be charged in court, but nothing has been achieved. The Ifedi couple is not the people who vanished after being arrested in the southeast. There have been several people arrested who are now missing. The most disturbing fact about all these missing people is that DSS has never claimed responsibility.”
Chuks said that it was clear that the DSS operatives were responsible for people missing after being arrested. He said that this became clear after a lawyer, who was arrested and detained by DSS, luckily got bailed and returned to confirm these things.
“Aside from Sunday Ifedi and Calista Ifedi, there are Ikechukwu Henry, Malachy Nwaokwu. Where are they? There is a secret document where the names of so many detainees in the DSS are listed. It was a leaked document from the DSS office. It also contains the names of people whose family members had already been thought to be dead because they had been missing for years. The document showed that they merged these people with Boko Haram suspects.”
He mentioned missing suspects as Sunday Chizoba Cornelius, Ndubuisi Emmanuel Nweke, a.k.a. One Time Limited, Arinze Ifeanyi Thomas, Ikechukwu Nwite, Calista Ugochukwu Ifeidi, Chidebere Luke Echefu, Malachy Moku, Henry Ikechukwu, Ifeidi Sunday, Gift Nwali a.k.a. Pikolo, Uchechukwu Francis Nkama, Ebuka Obina Opara, Chibike Nkorum Chinoyi, Ikye Uba, Okoroknwo Nduka Okena, Frank, Okorie Emele, Success Johnson, John Oji, Gentoo, among others.
Chuks said that information from sources revealed that the DSS, working as a team with police and military, usually dumps these suspects at the Wawa military detention facility in Kanji Barrack.
“How can you arrest someone for over four years without their children knowing whether their parents are alive or not? The children are in pain, and so are the parents. Feeding is even a problem for children. Merit had to abandon school to become a mother to her siblings. How is she expected to continuously feed and clothe them, pay bills?
“The question we should be asking right now is, are Calista Ifedi, Sunday Ifedi, and other detainees still alive?
Chuks recalled that a particular suspect was released after repeatedly court with her untiring lawyer. She would later reveal that DSS took her in a truck, alongside 70 other people, to Abuja and then to Wawa military detention barracks in Kainji, Niger State, where they lived in poor condition, malnourished.
“The girl narrated what she saw there, and she confirmed that she was even there with one of the parents of Merit. She also confirmed seeing other missing people. What does the Constitution say about abducting people and not arraigning them in court?” Chuks asked rhetorically.
He also said: “We also have many cases of women whose husbands were killed right in front of them. Ikechukwu Henry was abducted in August 2021. He left a two-month-old baby, and till now, nobody has heard anything about him.
“These human rights violations are not only happening in Enugu State, but also in Imo and Anambra. In Anambra State, Obasi Chuks has been abducted to date. But later on, we started hearing rumours that he’s been detained by the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and so many other cases.”
Chuks called on the Federal government to do the right thing by arraigning those still in detention facilities.
His words: “We can’t have a Constitution, and the federal government is defaulting in compliance with that same Constitution. According to our law, anybody arrested is still seen as a suspect; not until the court pronounces judgment can you say the person is guilty or not guilty.
“It’s illegal to arrest and detain somebody whom the court has not passed judgment on. Our Nigerian security agencies are becoming lawless and have also made the country to become a nightmare for its citizens. This kind of attitude is breeding an angry younger generation, who are witnessing this lawlessness.
Chuks accused Southeast governors of being complicit in the human rights violations going on in the region.
“The government knows how to stop these human rights violations. They should follow the Constitution. There are many courts to arraign suspects. The biggest problem is that the Nigerian government does not obey court orders.”
He said that part of the solution to check the escalating violations going on in the southeast was for civil society organisations to work together in confronting the government and law enforcement agencies for repeatedly failing to comply with the Constitution.
Stressing the importance of media and CSOs’ collaboration in seeking accountability for these human rights violations, Chucks emphasised: “If we all continued to keep quiet, one day it will happen to us. We can’t continue to pretend that what is happening, the lawlessness, does not concern us.”
Freedom Of Information Requests To Imo Police Command, DSS
Following up on allegations made by Mrs Chinyere Chinedu, Mrs Egole Nwachukwu and Mrs Oluebube Onyemafor, their husbands were last seen in the custody of the Imo State Police Command. This reporter sent a Freedom of Information Request (FoI) to the Imo State Commissioner of Police, dated 16th of June 2025, seeking to know “the whereabouts of these Nigerian citizens.”
The FoI further reads: “According to Mrs Chinyere Chinedu, her husband, Pastor Chinedu, was arrested by a combined team of law enforcement in 2021 and last seen at the Anti-Cultism Unit, otherwise known as Tiger Base Police, Imo State Police Command.
Mrs Egole Nwachukwu told our reporter that her husband, Reverend Cletus Nwachukwu, was arrested in 2021 and last seen at the SCID, Imo Police Command.
“Similarly, Mrs Oluebube Onyemafor said her husband, Kingsley Onyemafor, was arrested in 2021 and last seen at SCID, Imo State Police Command.
“We seek to know the current location of these men, who were last seen in Imo State Police Command detention facilities. Their distraught wives and children, not just our investigation, are desirous to know their whereabouts, with the wives and children seeking closure.”
The Command in a response dated 30th of June 2025, signed by a Deputy Commissioner of Police, DCP Hammanjod RK, states: “ Your letter dated 16th of June 2025, on the above subject, refers. This is to notify you that from the available Crime Records (January 2021 till date) emanating from the Anti-Kidnapping Unit, otherwise known as Tiger Base of Imo State Police Command, there is no verifiable information of either arrest or detention of such persons as contained in your letter. Meanwhile, you can route your letter to other security agencies to confirm their status.”
This reporter also sent an FoI Request, addressed to the Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Maitama Avenue, FCT, Abuja, dated 20th of June 2025.
It was sent via courier service, Red Star Express, with tracking number E1002877562, to the DSS Lagos office, CMD Road, Ikosi, Ketu.
According to the courier service, when the dispatch rider got to the DSS office, he was stopped at the gate, the letter was opened, read, and returned. He was asked to leave and go to Abuja to deliver the letter.
He returned the following day with the letter, and the officials still refused to accept the letter. On the 16th of June, 2025, this reporter earlier emailed the same FoI to [email protected]. But did not receive a response.
The FoI sent to DG DSS reads in part: “Our investigation has raised serious concerns about potential human rights violations regarding prolonged detention. We want to know the whereabouts of Mr Sunday Ifedi and his wife, Calista Ifedi.
“According to their daughter, Ms. Merit Ifedi, her parents were arrested in 2021 by a combined team of law enforcement officers. The parents were last seen by a human rights lawyer in the custody of DSS, Enugu State, before both were transferred to the FCT, Abuja.
“Since their arrest, for reasons yet unknown, the children have not set eyes on their parents, with some dropping out of school. The distraught children, not just our investigation, are desirous to know the current whereabouts of this couple, with the children seeking closure. We would like to know the crime for which the couple were arrested and the current situation of their case.”
This Report Was Supported By the Rule Of Law And Accountability Advocacy Centre As Part Of Its Interventions In Southeast Insecurity and Its Impact On Human Rights, Civic Space And Development.
TO BE CONTINUED
