A human rights attorney, Mr. Nnaemeka Ejiofor, has expressed concern about the enforced disappearance of 24 people who were detained by security personnel after being suspected of having ties to the IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu, who is currently in custody.
Ejiofor, who briefed newsmen in Abuja on the matter, lamented the fact that some of the missing people, who he claimed were taken into custody after being taken from their houses in August 2021, had not been seen and have not been brought to justice.
The senior attorney said that 20-year-old Joy Godwin Udoh, also known as Idara Gold, was one of those being held.
He described how Miss Udoh, a native of Akwa-Ibom state, was detained on her birthday by DSS agents at the residence of her fiance for reportedly donning a frock that was thought to be the Biafran flag’s colour.
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“The offences 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.
“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 extra judicial execution, murder in the cruelest manner such as by suffocation, starvation and or summary execution abound”, Ejiofor stated.
“Miss Udoh 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 Abuja office of the SSS on the 16th day of November, 2021.
“Joy Udoh’s offence was that she dressed in a certain coloured dress for her birthday and the SSS concluded that such coloured dress was advertising and influencing for the IPOB.
“Joy, like others before and after her, was transferred to a military holding cell without an order of court and contrary to all known laws in Nigeria”, Ejiofor insisted.
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“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”.
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 were among the additional 11 people listed by Ejiofor as having been detained on July 26, 2021, as they were travelling to Ebonyi State after appearing in court to
Others on Ejiofor’s list of allegedly arrested alleged members of IPOB who have not yet been located include Ikechukwu Henry, Emeka Ngonadi, Kingsley Onovu, Ogbonna David, Emmanuel Onyibe Chinomso, Ogbonna Christian Ndubisi, Eze Ernest Chukwuemeka, Ibeleme Tochukwu, Emmanuel Ike, Rev. Cletus Whole, Chin
After the case of Kanu on the said date at the Federal High Court, Abuja, they boarded two vehicles back to Ebonyi State only to be intercepted by a Navy Unit stationed at Lokoja, Kogi State.
“They were held down at the checkpoint for over five hours till a team of the SSS came to take them back to Abuja.
“Upon being sued in court to challenge their arrest and detention, they were said to have been transferred to WAWA Military Barracks in Niger State.
“Neither their lawyers nor their families have seen them or spoken to them nor have they been brought before any court for trial”.
“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.
