The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has accused the government and its security agencies of holding ‘innocent Biafrans’ incommunicado “for years now” in secret detention centres across the country.
In a statement yesterday (Thursday, September 5) by the Directorate of State (DOS) of the self-determination group, the IPOB said it had become necessary to alert the world and the Nigerian general public in particular, to the alleged existence of “these secret detention facilities because of the horrible human rights abuses –Â Â torture, illegal organ racketeering, forceful disappearances -and general maltreatment of innocent people going on in those detention centers.”
“Some people whose relatives are missing should look for them at these secret detention centers. Ndigbo are the highest ethnic group that are being detained in those murderous facilities on accusations of being either members of IPOB or ESN or framed as kidnappers by the notorious Nigerian Police, DSS, and Army,” the DOS alleged in the statement issued by the group’s Media and Publicity Secretary, Comrade Emma Powerful.
“Ndigbo have been profiled, hunted and detained by the Nigerian government across all the illegal detention centers in Nigeria, because of their ethnicity. Not only innocent Igbo are detained in these illegal detention facilities, but also innocent people from other ethnic groups are locked up in these gulags as well.”
Naming some of the alleged detention facilities in the country, the IPOB DOS advised parents/guardians and siblings to go to the following places to search for their missing relatives, wards, aides among others, “that is if they haven’t been tortured to death or butchered for organ black market by the notorious Nigerian security agencies.”, IPOB said.
The alleged detention centres are:
1) Wawa Military Base
2) Kainji Dam detention centre
3) Niger State barrack and prison (Over 350 Igbo Biafrans, some Nigerians abducted during #EndSARS protest) are dumped there
4) The DSS headquarters, Abuja
5)Â Intelligence Response Team (IRT) Abattoir, Abuja
6) Tiger base Police detention,
Owerri, Imo State
7) Goodluck Jonathan’s Army barrack Ohafia, Abia State
8) Zone 9, Umuahia, Abia State detention center
9) Zone 13 Ukpo, Anambra State
10) Onitsha Army Barracks, Anambra State
11)Â Navy Base Ogbaru, Anambra State
12) SARS Awkuzu Ukpo, Anambra state
13)Â 82 Division Enugu military barracks, Enugu State
14) Obinze Army Barracks Owerri, Imo State
15) Central police station headquarters Umuahia, Abia State
16) State CID headquarters Awka, Anambra state
17). Naval Base Asaba, Delta State
18) Enugu maximum prison, Enugu State
19) Port Harcourt maximum prison, River State
20) Aba prison, Abia state
21) Abakiliki prisons, Ebonyi state
22) Uyo prisons, Akwa Ibom
23) Owerri prison, Imo state
24) Kuje Prison, Abuja
25) Keffi Prison, Abuja
26) Suleja prison, Niger state
27) Nigeria military intelligence detention facility, Abuja
“Up until today, some of the IPOB members that the Nigerian Army and Police abducted during pro-President Donald Trump’s inauguration rally in 2016 in Port Harcourt (Igweocha), the Rivers State capital, are still missing,” Powerful further alleged.
“IPOB is still searching for those men and women who were abducted during the peaceful rally, more than 8 years on. Nigerians with missing relatives should visit the above-named detention centres to investigate and know if they are still alive. The public should also know that the notorious Nigerian security forces keep moving the detainees from one detention center to another for reasons best known to them.”
Accordingly, “the DOS is calling on global human rights organisations, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Intersociety, and the UN Human Rights Council to initiate moves to find out how many of these detainees are still alive and compel the Nigerian government and its murderous security agencies to release these innocent civilians from these dungeons.”
“Prolonged illegal detention is torture, which is an abuse of fundamental human rights of those citizens. The Nigerian government is an embodiment of human rights violations, and it is time the government was called to order,” IPOB surmised.
