•Nigerian lawyers
A group of legal practitioners under the aegis of Concerned And Independent Legal Practitioners For The Families Of The Detained And Missing Persons in Igboland today urged the federal government to immediately produce all persons currently detained without trial and either charge them before competent civilian courts or release them.
They also also tasked government to account for every missing person or provide credible evidence of their fate, and also compensate the families of those who have died or suffered serious harm as a result of unlawful detention, torture, or extrajudicial killing, reports The Guardian.
The lawyers further urged the government to Investigate and prosecute all security personnel involved in their extrajudicial killings and torture, and ensure that all suspects arrested in the South-East are promptly brought before competent civilian courts in accordance with the Constitution and the Administration of Criminal Justice Act.
The Group made the call in a press statement credited to Mazi Chris Nwaọgụ who was described as Head of Directorate of State, IPOB, Principal Counsel, Independent Legal Team for the Families of the Detained and Missing Persons
The Press Statement was read out to journalists in Umuahia, Abia state capital today by Segun Adekoya Esq.
According to the statement, the Concerned lawyers stated that they are not members of any political movement but concerned and independent legal practitioners, retained by families whose lives have been spurned and shattered.
“We appear on the instructions of Mazi Chris Nwaọgụ, Head of the Directorate of State of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), yet, we speak as officers of the Court, bound by our sacred oath to the Constitution and the Rule Of Law.
“We are here because the rule of law lies in ruins across the South-East. We are here because thousands of Nigerian citizens, mostly Igbo sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, have been dragged from their beds, torn from the arms of their children, locked away without trial, tortured until their spirits break, and in too many cases, murdered. All of this, under the shadow of a proscription order”.
The Concerned lawyers further called for the end of the practice of transferring suspects from the South-East to military detention facilities and holding them there for prolonged periods without trial.
They demanded that the body of Mrs. Calista Ifedi should be produced and the circumstances of her death in custody fully accounted for, stressing that the time for excuses is over while the time for accountability is now.
While charging those against whom admissible evidence exists, they urged that they should be tried before competent civilian courts, and release those against whom there is none, account for the disappeared, investigate torture and unlawful killings.
They indicated that they shall reconvene with photographs, videos, and the full weight of their evidence, so that the world will see the faces of the abducted sons and daughters, know their names, and demand justice.
Even as they prayed God to bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the lawyers stated “The nation must finally learn to respect the rights and the humanity of all its citizens, Justice for the missings, and Never again” .
