Nnamdi Kanu’s Wife Demands Probe Of Five-Year Illegal Detention Of Anambra Woman, Onyeaka Ozioma | Sahara Reporters

The development, according to Okwu-Kanu, raises serious questions about the legality of prolonged incommunicado detention and the rights of detainees accused of involvement in separatist activities.

Mrs Uchechi Okwu-Kanu, wife of the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has demanded an independent investigation into the arrest, prolonged detention and treatment of a woman, Onyeaka Ozioma Elizabeth, who she said was held for more than five years without her family knowing whether she was alive.

Okwu-Kanu also demanded an account of every person allegedly being held incommunicado at the Wawa Military Detention Centre in Kainji, Niger State, following the emergence of a video showing Ozioma at the Federal High Court in Abuja.

In a statement issued on Wednesday which was shared on X handle, Okwu-Kanu said Ozioma was seen at the Federal High Court in Abuja on June 15, 2026, where she reportedly disclosed that operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) arrested her at 3-3, Onitsha, Anambra State, more than five years earlier.

According to the account, Ozioma was subsequently taken to the Wawa detention facility in Kainji, where she was allegedly held without access to her family or a lawyer before eventually being brought to Abuja to face trial.

The development, according to Okwu-Kanu, raises serious questions about the legality of prolonged incommunicado detention and the rights of detainees accused of involvement in separatist activities.

She said Ozioma provided the telephone number of her sister to the person who recorded the video. When the sister was contacted, she reportedly expressed disbelief that Ozioma was still alive.

“Think about that. For more than five years, a family did not know whether their daughter and sister was alive or dead,” Okwu-Kanu said.

“Ozioma was removed from everything and everyone she knew, transported from Anambra State to Kainji in Niger State, and later brought to Abuja to face trial.”

She questioned how a fair trial could be conducted after years of alleged isolation and lack of access to family members and legal representation.

“What manner of trial or justice can emerge from detention of this nature? How does a person adequately defend herself after allegedly being denied access to her family and legal representation for years?” she asked.

Okwu-Kanu further demanded answers concerning the alleged psychological, emotional and physical consequences of Ozioma’s prolonged detention.

“Who accounts for the psychological, emotional and physical damage inflicted upon her and the anguish imposed upon her family?” she asked.

She also questioned whether Ozioma’s alleged association with the Biafran cause or IPOB could have contributed to her prolonged detention.

“Is her real ‘crime’ that she is accused of being Biafran?” she asked, arguing that peaceful expression of support for self-determination should not, by itself, result in persecution.

“Why should anyone face persecution merely for identifying as Biafran or an IPOB member peacefully expressing a belief in self-determination?” she said.

“People publicly identify with Oduduwa and Arewa without being disappeared into military detention. Why, then, should a Biafran identity be treated as though it were itself a criminal offence?”

Okwu-Kanu said Ozioma’s case should not be viewed as an isolated incident, but as an indication of the need to establish the whereabouts and legal status of other detainees allegedly being held incommunicado.

“This is bigger than one woman,” she said. “It raises urgent questions about the many people who may still be held in Wawa and other detention facilities – unseen, unheard and unreachable by their families.”

She insisted that Ozioma was entitled to basic legal and human rights protections regardless of the allegations against her.

“Onyeaka Ozioma Elizabeth has a name. She has a family. She has rights. She is not a number to be buried inside a secret detention system,” she said.

The allegation comes against the backdrop of a recent SaharaReporters investigation into the use of the IPOB narrative in explaining violent crimes and controversial arrests across the South-East.

In the investigation published in June, SaharaReporters reported that over the past five years, violent crimes, political assassinations, communal killings and controversial arrests in the region have frequently and swiftly been attributed by security agencies to IPOB and its armed wing, the Eastern Security Network (ESN), sometimes before detailed investigations are concluded.

The newspaper’s investigation, based on interviews with families of victims, retired police officers, human rights advocates and lawyers, as well as an examination of police documents, found concerns about the quality of investigations surrounding some of the region’s most controversial cases.

The investigation highlighted allegations that hurried official narratives, weak investigations, political pressure and alleged misconduct by some security personnel have contributed to obscuring accountability for unresolved killings and other crimes.

In some cases, according to the investigation, the immediate attribution of incidents to IPOB or ESN has shifted public attention away from questions about the identity of the perpetrators, their motives and whether other criminal or political interests could have been involved.

The pattern has also heightened concerns among families whose relatives were arrested during security operations but were allegedly not promptly charged or given clear information about their whereabouts.

The allegations are particularly significant in the context of Ozioma’s case, where Okwu-Kanu says a family allegedly spent more than five years without knowing whether their relative was alive before she resurfaced at a court complex in Abuja.

The wider concerns have also been echoed by lawyers and rights advocates who have repeatedly called for security agencies to distinguish between genuine investigations into violent crimes and unsupported assumptions based on alleged affiliation with IPOB or other separatist groups.

Security agencies have consistently maintained that their operations in the South-East are directed at individuals suspected of involvement in violent activities, terrorism and threats to national security. Authorities have also denied operating outside the law and have defended the deployment of security forces against armed groups in the region.

However, Okwu-Kanu argued that national security concerns cannot justify concealing the whereabouts of detainees or denying them access to due process.

She called for “transparency and access to legal representation and family contact” for Ozioma and other detainees.

“We demand an independent investigation into her arrest, detention, treatment and the legal basis upon which she was held,” she said. “And we demand an account of every person still detained incommunicado in Wawa.”

She added: “Nigeria cannot call this justice. A country in which families must discover through a courtroom video that their missing loved ones are still alive is a country facing a profound crisis of law, humanity and conscience.”

The case has renewed questions about the treatment of suspects held in connection with separatist-related cases, the use of IPOB allegations in criminal investigations and the safeguards available to detainees before they are brought before a court.