The Nigerian Government has released three suspected members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) arrested by officers of the Nigerian Army on February 27, 2020, at the Imo River community in Abia State. The victims, according to The PUNCH are Sunday Nwafor, 59; Uzonwanne Ejiofor, 48; and Wilfred Dike, 36. They were held at 14 Brigade Nigerian Army, Ohafia, Abia State for over two years, without trial. Amnesty International Nigeria and the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) have reported that Nigerian security agencies, especially the police; secret police, Department of State Services and Nigerian Army are actively using enforced disappearance and that hundreds of civilians in Southeast Nigeria have been victims. Although the Nigerian Government denied the accusation, the three detainees’ release confirmed the various enforced disappearance reports.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International Nigeria, in a release published on its Twitter handle, welcomed their release and asked the government to account for numerous others detained in various cells.
AI urged the government to provide information about the status of other victims of enforced disappearance and incommunicado detention.
“Amnesty International urges Nigerian authorities to provide information about the status of other victims of enforced disappearance and incommunicado detention, grant their families and lawyers access to them, charge them to court, or release them in the absence of any legal authority used to justify their continued detention,” the statement read in part.
Meanwhile, efforts to get the reaction of the Nigerian Army were unsuccessful as its spokesman, Brigadier General Onyema Nwachukwu did not answer his calls.
