Comrade Engineer Okoli Odira Nzube, a Mobilization Officer of the separatist Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has fled for his dear life after surviving torture in the hands of Nigerian security agents.

For the foremost Biafra activist, his ordeal started after he was arrested in early July 2019 during an IPOB gathering at his community, Umunze in Orumba South Local Government Area of Anambra State, South-East Nigeria. Okoli Odira Nzube was whisked away to the state capital, Awka, where he was detained at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Nigeria Police Force, before he was moved to far away Lagos in the country’s South-West and clamped into detention.

As he awaited arraignment in court in Lagos, security operatives raided his country home in Umunze, arrested and took away his father, Pa Okoli Felix Ezika, and detained him at the State CID Awka. He was to spend seven months in custody before he was released when investigations confirmed that he was not a member of IPOB, which is launching a non-violent struggle for the independence of Nigeria’s South-East region.

“While I was well treated in detention maybe because of my age and not being a member of IPOB, my son, Okoli Odira Nzube, was tortured mercilessly and nobody was allowed to visit him at the CID Awka before they transferred him and the other arrested IPOB members to Lagos. They gave him serious wounds on his body and the torture affected even his heart,” Pa Ezika said.

For Okoli Odira Nzube and the other arrested IPOB members, relief came when they were released on the first court appearance on September 25, 2019, following the strong argument of the IPOB legal team led by Barrister Ifeanyi Ejiofor.

“Since his arrest in early July 2019, I have not set my eyes on my son, Okoli Odira Nzube. It is good that he did not return home after his court-ordered release as security operatives returned to my house on two occasions to re-arrest him, thinking that he was back home,” Pa Ezika said.

He lamented that due to harassment by Nigerian security operatives, his wife, Mrs Okoli Theresa Mgbaforocha, and daughter, Miss Okoli Loveth Lebechukwu, ran away from home and were yet to return because of fear. “Our world has been turned upside-down by Nigerian security operatives just because our son is involved in a non-violent agitation, but that is the sad reality of life in South-East Nigeria,” the old man said.

News Express learnt that Okoli Odira Nzube later managed to escape to Ghana, from where he travelled to Europe in October 2019. He is believed to be presently in Greece.

“I understand that he is going through a lot in Greece as he has not been granted asylum,” Pa Ezika said. “We pray that he be granted asylum because if he is denied asylum and repatriated to Nigeria, that may mean the end of his life, as the Nigerian Army, Navy, Airforce, Police, and secret police known as DSS, are regularly raiding the homes of suspected IPOB members in the South-East states, arresting and killing them at will. Even the IPOB Leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, remains in DSS custody in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, despite court orders for his release,” Pa Ezika added.