In this concluding part of this hard-hitting investigation into human rights violations in Southeast Nigeria, JULIANA FRANCIS unveils shocking revelations from a 227-page report. It exposes how men and even women are arrested and disappeared, while wives, daughters, mothers, and sisters continue to pray and wait for their unlikely return. The Report unmasks the fate of Southeast Nigeria’s missing men.
Report Reveals Shocking Incidents of Disappearance Of People After Arrest
A 2024 Report title, “Nigeria: Ocean of Innocent Blood Flowing in The East,” by The International Society For Civil Liberties and Rule (Intersociety), states that State actors under the guise of checkmating IPOB/ESN/Biafra terrorism has secretly massacre 22, 500 unarmed civilians and openly killed 9,800 others in the past nine year and four months (August 2015- December 2024).
According to the Report, people suspected of being IPOB, without any evidence, are slain, abducted, or disappeared by state actors. The Report says that members of the security forces involved in this include the army, the air force, secret police officers and personnel.
A scanned document seen in the Report by this reporter reads Giwa Project, a restricted document emanated from Headquarters, Giwa Project, Wawa Cantonment, Kainji, Niger State.
The document, dated 23rd of March 2022, is titled, “Transfer of Boko Haram and IPOB Terrorists suspects to Nigeria Army,” showing the receipt of 32 suspects, “through Mr Mohammed Hafiz of the Department of State Service (DSS), Abuja.”
This letter of acknowledgement, confirming receipt of the 32 suspects, was signed by Lt Col Commander AZ Usman.
Other signees are the handing over officer, H. Yusuf (DSS), the taking over officer, LT J Usman, Bishop Victor (DSS) and Capt JI Waziri, both as witnesses to the handing over of the suspects.
One name that stands out on the list of transferred alleged terrorists is Calista Ogochukwu Ifedi, the mother of Merit Ifedi, who has been missing for over four years.
The Report reads in part, “It is our further finding that the conversion of civil conducts and civil wrongs into “act of insurgency or insurrection or terrorism” by military officers and personnel in South-East and South-South has become their stock-in-trade; to the extent that ‘wearing a bangle or a faze cap or having a body tattoo or bearing a stylist hairstyle or responding to security questions at military roadblocks or wearing an Igbo red cap and Igbo identity wrist and neck bangles, etc., have been seized as an opportunity to instantly false-label and falsely accuse such victims as “as IPOB/ESN insurgents”; or “herbalists or combatants or founding fathers or spiritual fathers or relatives or wives or girlfriends or boyfriends or parent(s) or friends or collaborators or commanders of ESN/IPOB insurgents, terrorists, hoodlums.”
The Report also mentioned that South-East and South-South civilians killed outside the law or permanently disappeared without traces by their families between August 30, 2015, and September 30, 2020, is most likely to be not fewer 5,000.
It also stressed that out of this number, estimated 1,500 are most likely to have been shot and killed in the open and the remaining 3,500 likely to have been secretly abducted at ungodly hours and shot and killed on their way to secret military locations scattered across the two Regions; “or taken into custody where they were likely to have been shot and killed or tortured and left to die or starved to death in military captivity.”
According to the Report, Mr. Sunday Ifedi and Mrs. Calista Ifedi were detained by the DSS at Wawa Military Cantonment since November 2021.
“The Enugu residence of the couple was raided after midnight of November 21, 2021, by the Enugu Directorate of DSS, during which they were abducted and later taken at a late night to Abuja DSS Headquarters, from where they were detained and later discovered to have been located at WAWA Military (Army) Cantonment in Niger State. They were also accused of being ‘IPOB members’ and have been held inhumanely without a civil trial to date. Mr. Sunday Ifedi and Mrs. Calista Ifedi left their three underage children: two girls and a boy.”
The Report also stated that several “civilians have been inhumanely held since 2021 inside Wawa Military Cantonment,” others are held and detained in different detention facilities like the 14th Brigade and its 144 Battalion offshoots (FOBs) in Asa and Aba and the Naval school of Finance and Logistics at Owerre-Nta in Abia State, among others.
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According to the Report, due to extrajudicial killings and men permanently disappeared by state actors in the southeast and south-south, an estimated 9000 married women have been widowed, and among that number, 3000 were widowed by security forces between August 30, 2015 and September 20, 2020, while 6000 others were widowed between October 21, 2020 and December 31, 2024.
The Report noted that men and women labelled IPOB members or lovers of IPOB, whose families are searching for them, are secretly tried by the military and given prison terms of five years, 10 years or 20 years. After the judgments, the ‘convicts’ are at risk of being killed, tortured, or starved to death.
“The most shocking aspect is that these military detainees have perpetually been denied access to their families and lawyers from the point of their arrest or abduction to their incarceration to date,” the Report states.
The Report mentioned a legal practitioner, Pius Awoke Esquire, who was labelled an IPOB member and detained in the Wawa military cantonment for three years. Lawyer Awoke lived to tell the story. He was lucky to be released due to the intervention of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA).
He was arrested while returning from the court hearing of Nnamdi Kanu in Kogi State on the 26th of July, 2021. He was arrested along with one Onyibe Emmanuel Chinonso, a final-year Computer Science student of Ebonyi State University.
They were detained for two months inside an underground cell of the DSS headquarters in Abuja before being transferred to Wawa Military Cantoment and held there for three years. Awoke was released on the 21st of June 2024.
After Awoke’s release, he looked “haggard and malnourished, bearing scars of physical and psychological torture inflicted on him at cantonment,” the Report stated.
Recounting his ordeal, Awoke said: “They used rope to tie our hands like common criminals and took us to DSS headquarters in Lokoja that night.”
The lawyer, who was arrested alongside nine others, repeatedly asked what their offences were, but got no responses; rather, “They blindfolded and handcuffed us. We were even afraid they were going to kill us because they had guns.”
After being processed and detained, these men were hungry. The lawyer recounted, “When we asked for food, one of them, Joshua Daniel, came into the cell. He had some handcuffs with him. He asked that we file out of the cell, and then he asked us to undress. He began touching our bodies to see if any of us had any marks.
“After this was done, he picked an empty can of water, went to a corner, poured his urine into it and used it to bathe us one after the other. He poured it over our faces and mouths.
“I am just thankful to God because I left that detention alive. A lot of people lost their lives in that place. That place is a house of torture. The truth is, when we got to that place, they stripped all of us in the open. They manhandled us, including physical torture and mental torture…”
Awoke disclosed that there was chronic hunger and thirst in that detention facility. He further revealed that 15 inmates were kept in a room-cell, which had an open toilet and bathroom, “the toilet is open, no door. If someone is using it, you’ll both be looking at each other…sometimes you wouldn’t get water to clean up.”
Human Rights Lawyers Speak, Demanding Accountability
A human rights lawyer, Sir Ifeanyi Ejiofor, who also represents one of the women searching for her missing husband, Oluebube Onyemafor, said: “Many people are facing the same ordeal at the hands of security agencies. I heard that the DSS has concluded investigations in over 5,000 cases, with the suspects being held at Wawa Military Barracks in Kanji, Niger State, supposedly for prosecution. However, the Ministry of Justice lacks the manpower to handle these cases.
“The relatives of these detainees have not been informed of their whereabouts, nor have they been allowed to properly engage lawyers of their choice. The suspects are often coerced into pleading guilty to lesser charges just to improve their chances of seeing their families sooner.
“Meanwhile, those who die in detention are disposed of without any notification to their families, who often don’t even know they were in the custody of security agencies in the first place. I suggest we mobilise as a coalition of civil society organisations to take this matter to the National Assembly and the court of public opinion through a strong press conference.”
The Country Director of Avocats Sans Frontières (ASF)/Lawyers Without Borders France, Ms Angela Uzoma-Nwandu, speaking on the issue, said: “No law permits enforced disappearance. This is exactly what is going on here. When someone is arrested, they have a right to contact their family. They should not be held incommunicado.
“Their family members have a right to know why they are being arrested. It’s a basic right of anyone who’s interfacing with the criminal justice system, and in these cases, that’s not being respected. It’s regrettable that we still run a system that can even permit such.”
According to the human rights lawyer, these wives and other relatives deserve to know which government agency arrested their husbands, brothers, and fathers.
“If it’s the police, then the police are accountable for them and should inform the families where they are detained. If they have been remanded in prison, they should be told that this is where they have been remanded. The family members, wife, should not be kept in the dark,” argued Nwandu.
She stressed, “When we talk about a lack of transparency in terms of processing, even if it’s a suspect of a crime, this is one such case. Why would the family members not know whether their husbands are alive? They ought to know; if they are alive, where are they? If they are not alive, the families should also be informed, including the circumstances surrounding their death. There are several instances of violations because even though law enforcement agencies have a right to investigate crimes, and I’m not narrowing it down to any one, irrespective of the type of crime they are suspected of, it all comes down to due process.”
Nwandu urged these women and their relatives to quickly seek lawyers who can help them.
Her words: “They ought to be allowed to contact their families. If their families are gone, that means they don’t even have lawyers. I would recommend that the family members engage lawyers.
“If they can afford legal services, they should quickly get lawyers to write. If they cannot, they should approach organisations that can help on a Pro Bono basis. That’s one key way forward. They can’t just keep waiting. They need to call out the government, provide the circumstances or at least the facts they know, such as when their loved ones were arrested, and prove that it was government officials who arrested them. This is one story that can be told to draw attention to the fact that a lot of human violations are going on. All of this is unacceptable in a democratic society.
“Law enforcement agencies cannot act outside the law. They are established by law to enforce the law. So, they cannot be in breach of the law while doing that. When they do, they need to be held accountable.”
A Report by Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC), in partnership with Action Group on Free Civic Space (AGFCS), Unveiling the Roots of Insecurity, Healing the Wounds of Human Rights Violations in Southeast Nigeria: A Path Towards Peace, Open Democratic Space, and a Prosperous Future,” states that “Basic rights are routinely disregarded, particularly towards those associated with pro-Biafra groups. Torture, enforced disappearances, and extrajudicial killings are commonplace, with estimates suggesting over 2,000 people executed or disappeared since 2015.
“Thorough, independent, and impartial investigations must be conducted for all allegations against citizens in the South East. If sufficient evidence emerges, fair trials in ordinary civilian courts, regardless of the accused’s rank or status, should follow for those implicated in criminal conduct. Implementing these measures signifies a crucial step towards accountability and justice for all victims in the region.”
The Report further argues that South East Nigeria is choked by a tightening knot of escalating violence and impunity, with over 2,000 lives having been extinguished in extrajudicial killings since 2020, allegedly at the hands of security forces and vigilantes exploiting the chaos of clashes between them and the armed wing of the separatist group IPOB.
“Official figures, while lower, still paint a chilling picture with over 500 acknowledged deaths labelled ‘hoodlums’ or ‘unknown gunmen, ‘” the Report noted.
A journal, Scrutinising the Constitutionality of Remand Order Proceedings under the Administration of Criminal Justice Legislation in Nigeria: A Comparative Analysis, states: “The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) stipulates that any person who is arrested and detained should be brought before a court of law within a reasonable time. The Constitution did not leave the meaning of “reasonable time” to conjecture; rather, it defined the same in a later provision.
“To circumvent or rather avoid breaching these provisions, the Law Enforcement Agencies resorted to filing what is referred to as “Holding Charge,” usually in a Magistrate Court lacking jurisdiction, to enable them to continue and conclude the investigation without incurring consequences attendant upon infringement of the Constitutional Rights of the suspects.
“This procedure (holding charge) became an avenue for abuses and corrupt practices as it brought unprecedented hardship on suspects in the hands of law enforcement agencies and nominal complainants.
“There should be no collusion between the judiciary and the executive in the unlawful detention of anyone in Nigeria. The pains and anguish suffered by Nigerians at the hands of law enforcement agencies have led to untrammelled relationship strain and a lack of trust in law enforcement officers. There is a need to repair this damage in a relationship.
“In dealing with terrorism related detention in Nigeria, the extended detention time limit cannot be justified when compared with what obtains in foreign jurisdictions; we emphasise most importantly the need to build strong institutions rather than strong persons or individuals.
“Where strong institutions are built, they control and sanction the excesses of errant individuals and or law enforcement officers by holding them accountable for their misdeeds.”
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.
CONCLUDED
