‘No Nigerian Should Simply Disappear’: Groups Demand Probe Into Alleged Torture, Secret Detention, Disappearances By Security Agents | Sahara Reporters
Some survivors alleged they were beaten with cables, wood and iron objects, starved, bound, denied medical treatment and held in overcrowded or underground cells.
A coalition of rights organisations has demanded an independent investigation into allegations that Nigerian security agents have tortured, secretly detained and caused the disappearance of citizens, following harrowing testimonies at a joint press conference in Enugu on October 17, 2026.
The Southeast Human Rights Bureau, the Oganihu Igbo Development Foundation and the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law convened the briefing, where families and survivors recounted arrests that turned into years of unexplained detention, torture and disappearance.
In a statement signed by Okechukwu Nwanguma, Executive Director of the Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC), the groups said the testimonies described people taken from homes, workplaces and places of worship; relatives arrested in place of sought persons; detainees moved across states without notification; and families searching police stations, DSS facilities, military formations, correctional centres, courts, hospitals and mortuaries.
“How can human beings with blood flowing through their veins enter another person’s home, seize a husband, wife, son or daughter and make that person disappear?” Nwanguma asked. “How can security agents—fathers, mothers, husbands, wives and members of communities—subject fellow citizens to torture, starvation, prolonged isolation and detention in places hidden from their families?”
He added: “Silence is not an answer. Denial unsupported by transparent custody records is not accountability.”
Some survivors alleged they were beaten with cables, wood and iron objects, starved, bound, denied medical treatment and held in overcrowded or underground cells.
Others spoke of detainees who died in custody or disappeared after arrest. Families said released detainees told them their missing relatives had been seen at Tiger Base in Owerri or Wawa Military Barracks in Niger State, while authorities offered no reliable account of their whereabouts.
Mrs Chinyere Blessing Nwachukwu said police officers took her husband from their Port Harcourt home in 2021. Former detainees allegedly contacted her three times to say they had seen him at Tiger Base, but the facility reportedly denied holding him. Years later, his family still does not know whether he is alive.
Ifeanyi Thomas Arinze was reportedly taken from his Owerri home in November 2021 by persons identified by his family as DSS operatives.
Survivors released from Wawa Barracks reportedly said they saw him there in 2026. His family has received no reliable official information about his present location or legal status.
Okechukwu Paul was reportedly taken from Owerri in October 2021. His wife has neither seen nor heard from him since. Former detainees also claimed to have seen him at Wawa Barracks this year.
“These accounts raise a simple question: if the State did not arrest or detain these men, will it investigate who did? If they were arrested by State agents, why can the responsible agencies not account for them?” the statement asked.
The groups also raised concerns about convictions allegedly obtained without effective legal representation. Abel Onyedikachi Ugwuoke reportedly disappeared on December 8, 2024, after leaving his family compound on his motorcycle. His family later learned from unofficial sources that he was in Kuje Custodial Centre. He was reportedly tried without effective legal representation and sentenced to life imprisonment. People who saw him described a severe deterioration in his mental condition.
Esther Okwudili Egbom was reportedly taken from a prayer ministry in Aba when security operatives could not find the man they were seeking. Her family searched for her without success. She later appeared before the Federal High Court in Abuja, was reportedly tried without legal representation, sentenced to five years’ imprisonment and transferred to Suleja Custodial Centre.
Ezugwu Paul Ejike was reportedly taken by unidentified persons in December 2024 and subsequently sentenced to 40 years’ imprisonment, allegedly without effective legal representation.
“A valid guilty plea must be informed, unequivocal and freely made. A plea produced by torture, threats, exhaustion, deception or a false promise of release is not justice. It is the transformation of earlier abuse into a judicial outcome,” Nwanguma said.
“Counterterrorism is not strengthened by convictions of doubtful integrity. Such convictions may imprison innocent people, conceal investigative incompetence and leave actual perpetrators free.”
The statement also demanded urgency over the reported case of Calista Ifedi, who with her husband Sunday was reportedly arrested by the DSS in Enugu in 2021 and transferred to Wawa. Sunday was released after more than four years, but Calista reportedly died in custody and was buried in a shallow grave.
“If this report is accurate, where is her grave? What caused her death? Was her family notified? Was an autopsy conducted? Who authorised her burial?” the statement asked. “A Nigerian citizen cannot die in State custody and be secretly buried as though she had no name, family or human dignity.”
The groups further questioned the use of Wawa Military Barracks to detain civilians.
“Why should civilians arrested without arms and accused mainly of association, past membership or suspected sympathy with a proscribed separatist organisation be held for years inside a military facility?” the statement asked.
“Military barracks must not become opaque substitutes for police stations, correctional centres and courts.”
It cited Ngozi Gladys Agboje, whose arrest and detention from June 28 to September 15, 2021, was reportedly found by the Federal High Court in Abuja in October 2023 to have violated her fundamental rights.
The court reportedly upheld her complaints of torture, degrading treatment and unlawful interference with her property, awarded her ₦30 million in damages and ordered the police to tender an unreserved public apology.
More than three years later, the groups asked whether the compensation had been paid, the apology issued, her belongings returned and the officers implicated in her torture investigated.
“A judgment that is ignored is an unfinished victory,” Nwanguma said. “The question is therefore not only who carried out the torture. It is also who authorised the operation, who received the reports, who controlled the detention facility, who signed the transfer documents, who failed to inspect the cells and who protected the perpetrators afterwards.”
The coalition also criticised the silence of institutions mandated to act, asking where the heads of security agencies, the Attorney-General of the Federation, state attorneys-general, the National Human Rights Commission, the Police Service Commission, the National Assembly and state legislatures, and the governors were.
“Institutional silence is not neutral. When officials who have the power and duty to act look away, their inaction enables repetition. It tells perpetrators that nobody will ask questions. It tells victims that citizenship offers them no protection,” the statement said.
The groups condemned atrocities committed by armed separatist elements and criminal gangs, but stressed that crimes by non-state actors cannot become a licence for State lawlessness.
“The distinguishing quality of the State is not merely that it possesses superior force. It is that its power is regulated by law,” Nwanguma said. “A security system denuded of humanism ultimately becomes another source of insecurity.”
The coalition called on the Federal Government to order an independent audit of civilian detention at Wawa Barracks and other facilities linked to the allegations, identify and account for every detainee, preserve custody records and review convictions obtained without effective legal representation or through allegedly coerced pleas.
It urged urgent independent medical assessment for detainees with serious conditions, investigation of allegations involving Tiger Base and other formations, preservation of unidentified bodies in Imo State for forensic examination, and a protected DNA identification process for families.