UMUAHIA, Nigeria – Human rights organization Amnesty International demanded on August 23, 2026, that Nigeria’s security agencies charge detainees to court or release them following allegations of widespread human rights violations, unlawful killings, and enforced disappearances across South-East, Nigeria.
Okay News reports that Amnesty International presented a report titled “A Decade of Impunity: Attacks and Unlawful Killings” during a campaign launch in Umuahia, Abia State. Amnesty International researcher Maurice Chukwu said reports of missing persons have persisted since 2021, with young people allegedly held in police detention facilities across the country without trial. Chukwu raised concerns over the Nigeria Police Force tactical unit known as Tiger Base, citing alleged extortion and unlawful detention, and said, “Amnesty is asking: where is accountability and justice for all Nigerian youths?”
Amnesty International campaigner Samson Abobarin said the organization is submitting a petition signed by regional residents to state governors, urging them to demand information from security agencies regarding missing individuals. Director of the Citizens’ Rights Department in the Abia State Ministry of Justice, Chinoyerem Patience Onyemenam, who represented the state Attorney-General, said the state government maintains zero tolerance for human rights abuses. Onyemenam acknowledged that while many officers perform their duties, “some operational mechanisms are wrong,” and assured that the issues would be investigated.
Representative of the Abia State Commissioner for Tertiary Education, Nkechi Okoji, commended the campaign and recounted the alleged arrest and extortion of a medical student from Aba who was detained and transported far from where he was picked up by police officers. Chairman of the Abia State chapter of the Albinism Association of Nigeria, Nwosu Enyinnaya, called for justice for affected families. Relatives giving testimony included Miriam Nwambiram, Esther Chilem, Carolina Chukwuma, Chiwendu Chidiebere, Cecilia Nmaochie, and Nicholas Egekwu.
Esther Chilem said her husband, Godspower Chilem, was arrested at Life Gate Church in Aba on June 23, 2022, and was later linked to the Rapid Response Squad, though location attempts at detention facilities failed. Carolina Chukwuma stated her husband, Chukwuma Mwaokike, was arrested by Nigeria’s domestic intelligence agency, the Department of State Services, at St Paul Junction on April 26, 2021, before being moved to the Central Police Station in Aba. Another petitioner, Cecilia Anonorachi, stated her husband, Christian Ifeanyi, was arrested in 2023 and requested that Abia State Governor Alex Otti intervene.
Nicholas Egekwu said officers attached to the State Criminal Investigation Department in Umuahia entered his home following an attack by unknown gunmen and took away several youths, including his two sons. Egekwu said he later found the bodies of his sons, Obinna and Onyebuchi, at a mortuary in Umuahia, saying, “It remains the saddest day of my life. The incident devastated my family and we have not recovered from iHuman rights activist Samuel Agwu described the crackdown on members and suspected sympathisers of the separatist group Indigenous People of Biafra as “mind-blowing and hellish.” Agwu said he knew up to 1,000 people with accounts of missing relatives and alleged that detainees were held without trial at Wawa Military Cantonment in Niger State, while others arrested in Obigbo, Rivers State, remained unaccounted for.
