24 persons who were arrested by security agents for their alleged connection with the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, are missing from the facilities where they were held.
A human rights lawyer, Mr. Nnaemeka Ejiofor, who revealed this to reporters in Abuja on Tuesday said some of these victims of what he described as enforced disappearance were arrested from their homes since August 2021 and have neither been seen nor charged before any court of law.
Ejiofor said "The offenses of these men and women are that they are members of the IPOB or close associates of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
"None of these victims of enforced disappearance have received anything like trial since their arrests.
IPOB Crowd.
“None of them has ever been allowed to contact their lawyers or family and all judicial efforts made to see them or get them released have been illegally thwarted and frustrated.
"These 24 identified victims are just a fraction of the number of persons who were arrested and disappeared as so many very gory and scary reports of extrajudicial execution, murder in the cruelest manner such as by suffocation, starvation, and or summary execution abound”, Ejiofor stated.
According to the lawyer, the detainees included a 20-year-old lady, Joy Godwin Udoh, also known as Idara Gold, a native of Akwa- Ibom state, who was arrested by operatives of the State Security Service, SSS, at the home of her fiance, for allegedly wearing a dress that was considered to be the color of the Biafran flag.
"She went to celebrate her birthday with her fiance when officers of the state security service stormed the house in search of her fiance, Mazi Chuks Egwuatu. She was arrested alongside all the siblings of her fiance.
"While her fiance’s siblings were released after about five days in detention, she was transferred to the Abuja office of the SSS on the 16th day of November 2021.
"Joy Udoh’s offense was that she dressed in a certain colored dress for her birthday and the SSS concluded that such colored dress was advertising and influencing for the IPOB.
IPOB crowd.
"Joy, like others before and after her, was transferred to a military holding cell without an order of the court and contrary to all known laws in Nigeria”, Ejiofor disclosed.
Ejiofor lamented that despite an order of the Federal High Court in Abuja, the SSS has continued to deny the detained lady access to her lawyers and since then has failed to produce her in court.
"Till today, we do not know where Joy Godwin Udoh is, neither has any of us, including her family, been able to see or meet or hear from her”.
Other detainees, according to the lawyer are: Barrister Pius Awoke, Fortune Okezie, Chinedu Nwoba, Chinomso Onyeibe, Eze Joseph, David Ogbonnaya, Ajah Joseph, Igwe Johnson, Kenneth Ojima, Wisdom Ezika Nwambana and Uket Godwin, who were arrested on July 26, 2021, on their way to Ebonyi State after they attended a court session to witness Nnamdi Kanu’s trial.
He called on the Federal Government to produce the persons and release them to their families.
"We want the federal government to do the right thing by producing these victims and releasing them to their families with apologies and compensation”, Ejiofor added.
The media briefing was attended by wives, children, and relatives of some of the detainees.
Focus on the substance of the Appeal Court Judgement on Nnamdi Kanu, IPOB tells Malami.
As the controversy regarding the release of the IPOB leader rages on, the IPOB has asked the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami to direct his attention to the ruling of the Appeal Court on Nnamdi Kanu's matter.
In a statement signed by IPOB media and publicity secretary, comrade Emma Powerful the group said its " attention has been drawn to the unintelligent, disgraceful and incoherent statements credited to the Attorney General Alhaji Abubakar Malami to the effect that the Igbo Governors and politicians will decide whether Mazi Nnamdi KANU will be released unconditionally.
Nnamdi Kanu.
"IPOB believes that these Igbo Governors and politicians that Malami wants to turn into a reviewing panel of the judgment of a competent court of Jurisdiction, the Court of Appeal know the game and evil intention of the AGF and will certainly not fall for his *Greek poison* packaged in the deceptive form of making them relevant.
"Malami and APC Government must release Mazi Nnamdi Kanu unconditionally as declared by the Appeal Court and recommended by the UN Human Rights Working Group without delay because he committed no crime known to either Local or International law.
"Malami has been releasing terrorists from prison without taking them to court but has decided to play a demy god by this attempt to disregard and disobey the judgment of the Court of Appeal, as it has ignored the opinion of the UN Human Rights Working Group, IPOB added.
Politics and Opinion.
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