The leadership of the International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law (Intersociety) has raised the alarm over possible extinction of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), following the continued detention of its members in the South-east and South-south regions.

The group said it is still deeply shocked and alarmed concerning the continued detention under solitary or incommunicado circumstances of key IPOB activists in Aba, Abia State and other parts of the South-south and the Southeast Nigeria.

In a statement issued by its Board Chairman, Emeka Umeagbalasi and Obianuju Igboeli, Head, Civil Liberties & Rule of Law Programme, Intersociety accused the DSS of going about “riotously, abducting, shooting, torturing and detaining IPOB activists outside processes and procedures laid down in the 1999 Constitution.”

Intersociety recalled that it had earlier “raised the alarm concerning the renewed violent crackdown by DSS and other security agencies against IPOB activists and other pro-Biafra activists and supporters across the country particularly in the South-east 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.

“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 13th of July 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 16th of August 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.”

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