IPOB, other non-violent pro Biafra activists in danger ---Intersociety
(Nigeria) International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law, Intersociety, a civil society group, has alerted of the continued detention under solitary or incommunicado circumstances of key Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB activists in Aba, Abia State and other parts of the South-South and the South East by the Nigerian government.
It said that the situation was alarming “To the extent
that the authorities of the Department of State Security, 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.”
Intersociety in a statement by its chairman, Emeka
Umeagbalasi, said “We had on August 26, 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 June 22, 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 July 13, 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
August 16, 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 August 26, 2016 at t 7a.m.
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 7a.m., 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 August 11, 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 February 9,
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 August 22, 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 of August 28, 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 organisation 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 non-violent 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.”
Comments
Post a Comment