RULAAC asks AGF to probe five-year detention of Anambra woman, Wawa Barracks cases

by · The Eagle Online

The Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC) has petitioned the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice to intervene in the reported five-year detention of a 35-year-old Anambra woman, and to open a wider inquiry into prolonged detentions at Wawa Barracks in Niger State.

In the petition signed by its Executive Director, Okechukwu Nwanguma, the group urged the Federal Government to establish the circumstances of the detention of Ms Ozioma Elizabeth Onyeaka, from Akwuzu Village, Oyi Local Government Area, and to determine whether other families are in a similar situation.

According to information supplied to RULAAC by a family member, Onyeaka, a graduate of Guidance and Counselling who worked as a teacher and sold onions at a market, disappeared more than five years ago after attending a night church programme. She reportedly left early to prepare for work the next day but never reached home.

The family says it searched the neighbourhood and market, visited police and military facilities, contacted people who might help check other security formations, and tried to trace her through her mobile phone. “No security agency informed the family that Ozioma was in its custody,” the petition states.

For about five years and three months, the family says, no agency told them she had been arrested, where she was held, what she was accused of, or whether she had been taken to court.

“Her relatives therefore lived for years without knowing whether their daughter and sister was alive or dead,” the petition says.

The family reportedly learned she was alive after a lawyer encountered her in connection with proceedings at the Federal High Court, Abuja, involving terrorism allegations.

RULAAC said it has information that she was brought before the court in or about June 2026, but it does not have the certified court record. It cannot independently confirm the charge number, the offences alleged, the prosecuting authority, or the status of the case.

The family “strongly maintains that Ozioma was never involved in terrorism or violent activity.” RULAAC acknowledged that a family’s belief in her innocence “cannot substitute for judicial determination of any properly instituted criminal charge,” but added that “an allegation of terrorism cannot extinguish an accused person’s constitutional rights.”

The group also stressed that it has not established which agency arrested her, or the date and place of the arrest, saying that determining these facts is “one of the central purposes of this petition.”

RULAAC said the case resembles that of Mr Sunday Ifedi and his wife, Calista, who were reportedly arrested in Enugu in 2021 by Department of State Services operatives over alleged links to the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

They were eventually traced to Wawa Barracks after efforts by relatives and rights advocates.

Ifedi reportedly spent more than four years in detention before being freed. His wife did not return. By his account, she died in custody, was buried at Wawa Barracks, and the authorities later acknowledged she had been wrongly accused. RULAAC described these as “extraordinarily serious allegations which merit independent investigation in their own right.”

The group cautioned that it was “careful not to draw conclusions beyond the evidence presently available,” but said the similarities raise “legitimate questions” about whether people arrested in security operations in the Southeast since 2021 were moved to Wawa Barracks without notice to families, access to lawyers, transparent custody records or timely judicial oversight.

The petition lists 15 questions and 16 requests. Among other things, it asks the Attorney-General to order an immediate, independent review of Onyeaka’s arrest, detention and prosecution, including the evidence underlying the terrorism allegations, and to establish who arrested her, when and where, and in which facilities she has been held.

It also wants her to have “immediate and unhindered access” to her family and lawyers, and for her family to be told where she is held and how she is doing. The group asks the Attorney-General to obtain the full Federal High Court record and preserve all records of her arrest, interrogation, detention and transfers. Where there is insufficient admissible evidence, it says, the case should be discontinued; otherwise, the trial should be concluded speedily with full fair-hearing rights.

Beyond Onyeaka’s case, RULAAC is asking for an investigation into the Ifedi case and Calista’s reported death in custody, including the alleged burial at Wawa Barracks.

It also calls for a transparent mechanism to identify other such detainees, notify their families, and account for anyone who died at Wawa Barracks, including causes of death and places of burial.

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The petition cites Section 35 of the Constitution, which guarantees personal liberty and safeguards on arrest and detention, and Section 36, which guarantees fair hearing. It also cites the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which is domesticated in Nigeria.

RULAAC said it recognises the State’s legitimate counter-terrorism duties, and that nothing in the petition “seeks to obstruct a lawful investigation or prosecution supported by credible evidence.” It argued, however, that “national security cannot justify rendering a person effectively invisible to family, legal counsel and ordinary mechanisms of judicial accountability.”

“Once the State takes a person into custody, it assumes responsibility for that person’s safety, welfare and legal rights,” the petition states. “It must also be capable, at all times, of accounting for that person.”

It closes with a broader question: “How many other Nigerian families may still be searching for relatives who are, or were, in the custody of the Nigerian State?”

“For Ozioma’s family, more than five years of uncertainty is already far too long,” the group said, requesting formal acknowledgement of the petition and details of the steps taken.

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