By PAMELA EBOH, Awka

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has alerted the world and the general public about what it described as secret detention facilities in Nigeria.

This was contained in a statement issued on Thursday by IPOB's Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful.

According to the group, some Biafrans have been held incommunicado for years now in some of the detention centers.

The statement partly read, "The DOS has deemed it apt to alert the world and the general public about these secret detention facilities because of the horrible human right abuses and maltreatment of innocent people, torture, illegal organ racketeering, and forceful disappearance that are happening at these detention centers.

"Some people whose relatives are missing should look for them at these secret detention centers.

"Ndigbo are the highest ethnic group that are being detained with accusations of being either members of IPOB or ESN or framed as kidnappers by Nigerian Police, DSS, and Army. Ndigbo has 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.

"The following detention facilities in Nigeria are places to search for your missing relative if he or she hasn't been tortured to death or butchered for organ black market,” IPOB said.

It went head to list several military barracks and police formations across Nigeria which allegedly habour secret detention centres.

"Until today, some of the IPOB members that the Nigerian Army and Police abducted during President Donald Trump's inauguration rally in 2016 at Part Harcourt (Igweocha), Rivers State are still missing.

"IPOB is still searching for those men and women who were abducted during the peaceful rally, more than 8 years on. 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 notorious Nigerian Security Forces keep moving the detainees from one detention center to another for reasons best known to them,” IPOB said.

It called on Amnesty International, Human Right Watch, Intersociety, and the UN Human Rights Council to initiate the move to find out how many of the detainees are still alive and compel the Nigerian Government and the security agencies to release innocent civilians from those dungeons.

The separatist group stressed that prolonged illegal detention is torture, saying that it is an abuse of fundamental human rights of the citizens affected.