(Onitsha Nigeria, 28th August 2016)-The leadership of International Society for Civil Liberties
& the Rule of Law (Intersociety) is still deeply shocked and alarmed
concerning the continued detention under solitary or incommunicado
circumstances of key IPOB activists in Aba, Abia State and other parts of the
South-south and the Southeast Nigeria. To the extent that the authorities of
the DSS now go about riotously, abducting, shooting, torturing and detaining
IPOB activists outside processes and procedures laid down in the 1999
Constitution; further shocks and worries us.
We had two days, 26th
of August 2016, raised alarm concerning the renewed violent crackdown by DSS and ors
against IPOB activists and other Pro Biafran activists and supporters across
the country particularly in the Southeast and the South-south parts of Nigeria.
We had in our last statement under reference recalled that Citizen
Chidiebere Onwudiwe, who is Nigeria’s National Coordinator of IPOB and a
trained Mechanical Engineer with lawful means of livelihood, is still in
solitary detention without trial after 64 days of his late night arrest by the
authorities of DSS in Rivers State. Engineer Chidiebere Onwudiwe was trailed
and traced to his residence near Port Harcourt in the evening of 22nd
June 2016; after which his residence was violently attacked about seven hours later,
leading to his violent arrest and incarceration till date. He was also arrested
in his sleep and till date, he has not been put on trial in any court in Nigeria.
We recall further that the
authorities of the DSS also trailed and traced Citizen Justice O. Udeh (an
official of IPOB in Aba, Abia State) to a place he had gone to pass a night and
violently arrested him in his sleep. The raid took place in the late night of
13th of July 2016 near Port Harcourt in Rivers State. Since his violent arrest; a period of 43 days
today, he is neither released nor put on trial. Again, the ordeal of Citizen Sunday Chukwuka
Obasi during his violent arrest is the crudest and most shocking of it all. He
is the Nnewi-Ichi Coordinator of IPOB. He was trailed by the DSS from Port
Harcourt where he had gone on a trip and in the late night of 16th
of August 2016, his residence at Amuwo-Nnewi was violently attacked while he
was sleeping. It was in the process that the DSS operatives that came on a
marked Government vehicle opened fire on him and shattered his two legs before
he was whisked away. It has been technically established that the DSS
operatives that stormed his residence must have been composed of Rivers and
Anambra States Directorates. Till date, the condition of his gunshot wounds has
not been ascertained and he has remained in DSS custody without trial. Amnesty
International, based in UK, has already raised an international advocacy alarm
and launched an “urgent action appeal” on his behalf.
The latest of the DSS violent
crackdown on unarmed and nonviolent IPOB activists particularly in the
Southeast and South-south was violent and riotous attack on 12 passengers that
boarded a commercial Hummer Bus belonging to FG Onyenwe & Co in the morning
of Thursday, 26th of August 2016 at about 7am. The attack by the
authorities of DSS, Abia State Directorate, also involved Army and Police
operating under the “Abia State Joint Security Taskforce”. The commercial bus
was returning from Gwagwalada-Abuja via night route when it was violently
attacked and impounded at about 7am at Ugba Junction near Aba in Abia State.
The Bus was obviously trailed from its point of departure and had on board a
DSS informant as one of its passengers. The trailing must have started from the
Kuje Prison where the arrested IPOB activists went to visit IPOB leader, Nnamdi
Kanu (POC). The operation must have also resulted from intelligence sharing
between the FCT and Abia State DSS authorities, who alerted other law enforcement
agencies in Abia State.
Further updates gathered from our
investigation show that the Bus had on board a total of 12 passengers including
the driver, four married women (including a heavily pregnant woman) and seven
men including a suspected DSS informant, a Hausa indigene and five arrested
IPOB activists. The names of five
arrested IPOB activists are Citizens Ikechukwu Ugwuoha (Abia State Coordinator
of IPOB), Asochukwu Ugochukwu, Sunday J. Okafor, Ekene Onuoha and Joseph Okorie
(Ogbuawa); among them were those released from Aba Prisons on 11th
of August 2016 following the directive of the Attorney General of the
Federation that charges against them and other Pro Biafra activists in Nigeria
should be dropped. They were remanded in prison custody since February 2016
after they were spuriously charged. The Nigerian Army and ors had on 9th
of February 2016 massacred 22 of their members at a prayer procession held at
the Premises of the National High School at Aba.
After the impoundment of their
Bus at Ugba Junction near Aba in the morning of 26th of August 2016,
leading to their torture and confiscation and seizure of their mobile phones;
they were taken to the Ngwa High School temporary headquarters of the 144
Battalion of Nigerian Army, Aba where they were held and tortured for over
three hours (7.30am to 11am). One of the four married women (Ugochi) was
brutally tortured and bruised. The five IPOB activists named above were also
inflicted with bruises and beaten to a pulp while the suspected DSS informant
and a Hausa indigene were left untouched and unharmed. Mrs Ugochi also received
bruises and beatings in her neck, eyes and ears regions and was labelled “wife
of a Niger Delta Avenger, who keeps guns for her Avenger husband”. All the five
arrested IPOB activists were labelled “Niger Delta Avengers” with a promise to
parade them on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA).
The five arrested IPOB activists
were later handcuffed and had their eyes and faces tightly covered with their
shirts before they were transferred to the security trucks of the Abia State
Joint Security Taskforce and driven out of the Ngwa High School alongside the
seven other passengers and driver of the Bus. They were taken back to the point
of their arrest where the Hummer Bus, its driver and the remaining five
passengers were released and threatened with re-arrest if any of them discloses
what happened to any third party. To this effect, all their mobile phones were
not returned or given back to them. The suspected DSS informant was discharged
at the Ngwa High School headquarters of the 144 Battalion of the Nigerian Army
while the arrested IPOB activists were blind-folded, handcuffed and driven
away. Family sources of some of them later confirmed that “they have been
traced to the Umuahia Directorate of the DSS, near the Abia State Government House
and that as at this morning, 28th of August 2016, they are still
there”.
While we commend the authorities
of the Amnesty International, UK, for their efforts in drawing the global
attention to indiscriminate arrest, torture, killing, disappearance and detention
without trial as well as criminal stigmatization of IPOB activists and activism
in Nigeria by DSS and other security agencies, we appeal to them to go a step
further by taking a global and advocacy notice and action against the latest
crack down on IPOB activists and other innocent citizens who have never used or
advocated violence against the Federal Republic of Nigeria or any part thereof.
The “urgent action appeal”
launched by the globally respected organization against the shooting, wounding,
abduction and disappearance of Citizen Chukwuka Sunday Obasi by the DSS is
globally appealing and commendable, but we further appeal for inclusion in the
global urgent appeal for immediate and unconditional release from the DSS
dungeon of Citizens Chidiebere Onwudiwe (Nigeria’s National Coordinator of
IPOB), Ikechukwu Ugwuoha, Ugochukwu Asochukwu, Sunday J. Okafor, Ekene Onuoha
and Joseph Okorie.
We also call on the authorities
of the US based Human Rights Watch, which has its Nigerian research team led by
Ms Mausi Segun Segunm to rise to the occasion. Till date, we are yet to see or read
any report of the HRW on systematic massacre of hundreds of unarmed and
nonviolent IPOB activists and other Pro Biafran agitators as well as torturing,
wounding and disappearance of hundreds of others by the Nigerian security
forces particularly the DSS, Army and Police. To the extent that human rights
are indivisible and universal without any discrimination as to sex, age, tribe
or religion, makes us worried the more as why some globally respected groups
like Human Rights Watch, likewise the United Nations have chosen to remain
silence despite having substantial presence in Nigeria and being in constant
know of the rampaging regime atrocities.
We therefore appeal to all well
meaning international rights and media organizations as well as international
respected personalities to join us in rising in strong condemnation of the
escalating rampancy of State abduction, arrest, torture, killing, disappearance
and detention without trial of innocent and unarmed citizens of Southeast and
South-south extractions. We must insist in collectivism that IPOB activists are
not terrorists and common criminals and that terrorists and common criminals in
Nigeria are most respected and well treated by the Nigerian State and its
coercive agencies than those citizens who never use or advocate violence.
The authorities of the DSS in
Nigeria must not only release all IPOB activists in their custody unconditionally,
but must also stop all forms of crackdown on other IPOB activists including
married women. As we speak, the likes of Mrs Ugochi Enyinnaya, Mrs Eunice Ada
Omaka and numerous other married women in Aba and other parts of the Southeast
and South-south have since run out of their marital homes and gone into hiding;
abandoning their young children and husbands, all because of DSS and Army
renewed crack down on IPOB activists and their families. We must collectively tell
the DSS, Army and Police to retrace their violent and unconstitutional
steps.
Enough is enough!
Signed:
For: International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law
(Intersociety)
Emeka Umeagbalasi, Board Chairman
Mobile Line: +2348174090052
Obianuju Igboeli, Esq., (LLB, BL)
Head, Civil Liberties & Rule of Law Program
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