Nigerian govt releases suspected IPOB members detained since 2020

Three suspected members of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) who have been in detention since their arrest in 2020 have been released by the Federal Government.

The suspects, Sunday Nwafor, 59; Uzonwanne Ejiofor, 48; and Wilfred Dike, 36, were reportedly arrested on February 27, 2020, by officers of the Nigerian Army, in Abia State, had been detained at the 14 Brigade Nigerian Army, Ohafia, since then, despite repeated outcry and calls by the agitators for the trio to be releaesed.

However, the suspects got their freedom on Wednesday following the intervention of international human rights organisation, Amnesty International Nigeria.

Confirming the release of the suspects in a statement on Wednesday night, AI said though it welcomes the release of the men, it also urged the “government to provide information about the status of other victims of enforced disappearance and incommunicado detention.”

“Amnesty International welcomes the release of Sunday Nwafor, Uzonwanne Ejiofor, and Wilfred Dike, who were arrested on February 27, 2020, by officers of the Nigerian Army, in Abia State, on suspicion of being IPOB members.

“It is a welcome development but Amnesty International Nigeria 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 AI statement reads.