Family sues Nigerian Army, SSS for disappearance of detainee from custody in Bayelsa

A family at Akedei community in Sagbama Local Government Area of Bayelsa State has sued the Nigerian Army and the State Security Service (SSS) for the disappearance of a suspect from detention.

The family said soldiers arrested Conference Wellyou, a farmer, alongside others two years ago over alleged membership of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

The family’s lawyer, Ebimobowei Okolo, filed the suit at the Federal High Court in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, South-south Nigeria, last year after their frantic efforts to find Mr Wellyou failed.

Mr Okolo said in the suit that the missing man was arrested alongside six other people on 24 May 2022 from the Akedei community by soldiers from the 16 Brigade of the Nigerian Army in Bayelsa State.

According to the court filing, John Henry, Aggrey Woyinmokebeton (Opuboy), Aggrey Yellowman, Appah Engine, Aboyky Harclose, and Friday Amagolu were arrested with Mr Wellyou.

They were arrested over allegations of involvement in activities of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

IPOB, a separatist organisation, seeks the secession of the five South-east states and some parts of the neighbouring South-south and North-central states from Nigeria.

The Nigerian government, in September 2017, obtained a court order designating and outlawing the group as a terrorist organisation over its violent separatist campaigns, particularly in the South-east region where it is domiciled. An appeal against the prescription order is still pending.

Violent attacks linked to the group and its sympathetic affiliates have worsened over the years, partly to intensify their demand for the release of IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu, who is facing trial on treasonable felony charges in Abuja, where he is detained.

The Nigerian security forces have also killed many suspected IPOB members and herded others to detention in a widespread crackdown on the separatist activities in the region.

After about three weeks in incarceration, the army released two of the detainees, Aboyky Harclose and Prince Friday Amagolu, but held on to Mr Wellyou and four others, the Wellyou family’s court filings stated.

“Since the arrest of the applicant (Mr Wellyou), no one has set eyes on him. No member of his family has seen him,” Mr Okolo said.

Family recounts detainee’s ordeal

An older brother to the detainee, Africa Wellyou, said he does not know Mr Wellyou’s whereabouts since the latter was arrested by soldiers almost two years ago.

“The last I and other relatives of the applicant (Conference Wellyou) know about the applicant was from Aboyky Harclose and Prince Friday Amagolu, who told me and others after their release from detention at Akedei community that the applicant and the four others were still at the detention facility of the 4th respondent (Nigerian Army) at 16 Brigade Yenagoa Bayelsa State,” the older Wellyou said in an affidavit in support of his brother’s suit.

The suit was filed on 25 October 2023.

In January 2023, in a desperate search for his brother, the deponent said he was informed by someone that the army had handed over Conference and his co-detainees to the Nigerian secret police, the State Security Service (SSS) in Yenagoa.

After a futile enquiry about his brother’s whereabouts at the SSS office in Yenagoa, Mr Wellyou engaged the legal services of Mr Okolo to write the army and the secret police.

On 15 August 2023, Mr Okolo wrote a letter to the commander of the 16 Brigade Nigerian Army in Yenagoa requesting information about the five detainees’ whereabouts.

Similarly, on 29 August 2023, the lawyer wrote to the Director of the SSS in Bayelsa demanding the release or prosecution of the client and co-detainees.

While the army commander did not reply to the letter, the Director of SSS refused to receive the letter.

“Despite the above letters demanding the release and/or prosecution of the applicant and the other four persons, the respondents have been adamant and continued to detain the applicant,” the affidavit added.

Relying on Messrs Harclose and Amagolu’s accounts of the detainee’s fate, Mr Wellyou recalled that his brother and others, while in detention, were “beaten, tortured and subjected to degrading treatment.”

He said Mr Wellyou was being kept in solitary confinement.

‘Illegal detention’

According to the court documents, Mr Okolo argued that the security forces’ continued detention of his client breaches the Nigerian constitution and international laws.

He urged the court to declare that Mr Wellyou’s continuous detention by the respondents (army and SSS) violated his fundamental right to liberty as guaranteed in the Nigerian Constitution.

“A declaration that the inhuman and degrading treatment of the applicant by the respondents is a violation of his fundamental rights to dignity of the human person guaranteed under section 34 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” one of the prayers of the suit reads.

The suit urged the court to direct the security forces to produce Mr Wellyou before the court and order his release.

Mr Okolo prayed the court to order the army and the SSS to pay N20 million compensation to the applicant “for the arrest and continuous illegal detention and inhuman treatment of the applicant by the respondents.”

He argues that section 35 of the constitution commands that every person shall be entitled to his personal liberty, and no person shall be deprived of such freedom except upon reasonable suspicion of his having committed an offence.

Army, SSS respond to suit

FILE: Operatives of the SSS (PHOTO CREDIT: Channels TV)

In a counter-affidavit dated 22 December 2023, the army, through its legal officer at 16 Brigade in Yenagoa, Abdurrahman Muhammad Sanni, denied arresting Conference.

In a scant counter-affidavit, Mr Sanni, an army major, identified five specific paragraphs that he said are untrue.

He added that officers of the Nigerian Army “did not arrest the applicant (Conference Wellyou) or any other person at Akedei community in Sagbama Local Government Area of Bayelsa State” on 24 May 2022 as alleged.

He added that “the applicant is not in the custody of either the 1st respondent (the Nigerian Army) or the 4th Respondent (the commander of16 Brigade Nigerian Army in Yenagoa).”

The army further argued that there was no evidence before the court that it arrested Conference.

The lawyer to the army, O.V Frank-Briggs, challenged Mr Okolo to prove that his client and others were in the military’s detention facility.

SSS similarly wrote in its counter-affidavit that Mr Wellyou was not in its custody.

“The applicant was never handed over to the 2nd respondent (the Director-General SSS). Neither has he been with the 3rd respondent (Director of SSS, Yenagoa) at any time whatsoever. The applicant is put to the strictest proof of his allegation,” the counter-affidavit deposed to by an SSS operative, John Okoh, wrote.

Co-detainee’s graphic account

Nigerian Army

A co-detainee, Friday Amagolu, has said the Nigerian Army’s claim denying arresting Conference “is a blatant lie”.

Mr Amagolu gave graphic details of how he and the others were arrested by soldiers and taken to the 16 Brigade of the Nigerian Army in Yenagoa. His account is contained in an affidavit he filed to dispute the army’s counter-affidavit.

He recalled in the affidavit that on the fateful day, 24 May 2022, he was woken up from sleep at his home by the voices of the commander of the vigilante group in the Akedei community, John Lafa, alias Yoba and soldiers that accompanied him.

He said the military officers, who came to the community in “three gunboats and three speed boats with 200 horsepower engines, arrested him on the allegation of being an IPOB member after Mr Lafa pointed at him.

He said he was taken from his house to the waterfront in Akedei, where he saw Mr Wellyou and the five others.

He said he later learnt that their arrest followed a report by the traditional ruler of Isampou, Friday Ogbodo, to the DOP Oporoma that some persons were building a camp in his community forest for likely IPOB activities.

“We were taken to 16 Brigade of the Nigerian Army at Yenagoa. We were kept two to a room in detention. Only one of us was kept separate. I was interrogated, and I told them I knew nothing of the allegation of being an IPOB member. I was told to inform them of the whereabouts of the remaining members because, according to the military officers, the report they received was that we were up to seventy members in the camp. I told them I knew no member as I was not a member,” his affidavit read partly.

He shared his experiences of ill-treatment during their incarceration, including sleeping on the bare floor, being fed with garri and ground once a day, and being physically and psychologically abused.

He said that after about two months in detention at 16 Brigade, Yenagoa, the military officers realised that he and one of the co-detainees, Aboyky Harclose, had no association with IPOB.

He said the two of them were released on 4 July 2022 after the traditional ruler of Akedei signed an undertaking for their release.

He said several members of the community witnessed the arrest of six of them and that some of them would be willing to testify in the case.