IPOB Names 27 Detention Centres Across Nigeria Where Over 350 Igbo Persons Are Held Incommunicado
In a statement issued on Thursday by its Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, IPOB said that the detained Igbos, some of whom were arrested during the 2020 #EndSARS protests, are subjected to horrible human right abuses and maltreatment, torture, and illegal organ racketeering.
The Directorate of State (DOS) of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has said that it has confirmed that over 350 Nigerians from the South-East region of the country, popularly known as Igbos are being held incommunicado in secret detention in 27 prison facilities across the country.
In a statement issued on Thursday by its Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, IPOB said that the detained Igbos, some of whom were arrested during the 2020 #EndSARS protests, are subjected to horrible human right abuses and maltreatment, torture, and illegal organ racketeering.
The IPOB spokesperson said that Igbos “are the highest ethnic group that are being detained with accusations of being either members of IPOB or ESN (Eastern Security Network) or framed as kidnappers by the Nigeria Police, DSS (Department of State Services), and Army.
“Igbos have been profiled by reason of their ethnicity by the Nigerian government and hunted and detained across all the illegal detention centers in Nigeria.
“Not only the innocent Igbos are detained in these illegal detention facilities, but also innocent people from other ethnic groups are locked up in these gulags.”
IPOB identified the secret detention facilities where over 350 Igbos and people from other ethnic groups were currently being held incommunicado to include: Wawa Military Base; Kanji Dam detention centre; Niger State barrack and prison (Over 350 Igbo Biafrans, some Nigerians abducted during EndSars protest) are dumped there; The DSS headquarters, Abuja; Intelligence Response Team (IRT) Abattoir, Abuja; Tiger base Police detention, Owerri, Imo State; Goodluck Jonathan’s Army barrack Ohafia, Abia state and Zone 9, Umuahia, Abia state detention center.
Others are; Zone 13 Ukpo, Anambra state; Onitsha Army Barracks, Anambra state; Navy base Ogbaru, Anambra state; SARS Awkuzu Ukpo, Anambra state; 82 division Enugu military barracks, Enugu State; Obinze Army Barracks Owerri, Imo State; Central police station headquarters Umuahia, Abia State; State CID headquarters Awka, Anambra state and Naval Base Asaba, Delta State.
Also identified by IPOB are; Enugu maximum prison, Enugu State; Port Harcourt maximum prison, River State; Aba prison, Abia state; Abakaliki prisons, Ebonyi state; Uyo prisons, Akwa Ibom; Owerri prison, Imo state; Kuje Prison, Abuja; Keffi Prison, Abuja; Suleja prison, Niger state; Nigeria military intelligence detention facility, Abuja
Powerful said that till date, “Some of the IPOB members that the Nigerian Army and Police abducted during President Donald Trump’s inauguration rally in 2016 at Port Harcourt (Igweocha), Rivers State are still missing.”
He said “IPOB is still searching for those men and women who were abducted during the peaceful rally, more than 8 years on.”
According to him, “Nigerians with missing relatives should visit the above named detention centers for their loved ones to investigate to know if they are still alive.
“The public should also know that the Nigerian security forces keep moving the detainees from one detention center to another for reasons best known to them.
“The Directorate of State of the Indigenous People of Biafra is calling on human rights organisations, Amnesty International, Human Right Watch, Intersociety, and the UN Human Rights Council to initiate the move to find out how many of these detainees are still alive and compel the Nigerian government and her 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 violators, and it is time the government is called to order.”
