The Department of State Services (DSS) has been accused of arresting and detaining a couple in Enugu State since November 23, 2021 without trial for justifiable reason.
According to a human rights organisation, the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), the illegal detention of Mr Sunday Ifedi and his wife, Callister, by the secret police was reported by their children.
This was contained in a statement signed by CLO on Saturday by Head of Enugu State office, Paul Odimegwu.
The secret police, since the arrest of the couple, has failed to present them before any competent court of jurisdiction anywhere in the country but kept them in solitary confinement for over one year, the rights group alleged.
In a petition addressed to the Director-General of DSS, the organisation, while quoting the victims’ children, said they were arrested around 1 am on that fateful day.
Furthermore, CLO disclosed that the children said their parents were taken to Enugu office of DSS where they were first detained and subsequently released.
The couple was rearrested shortly after and taken to DSS office, Abuja, for further interrogation, it stated.
READ ALSO: Abuja Health Workers Allegedly Sell Covid-19 Vaccination Card For N15,000
“Ifedi Echezona, and Ifedi peace informed us that since the arrest of their parents, they have not heard from them nor talked with them for over one year now,” the group said.
The petition also hinted that the children also informed the organisation that they had made several efforts to visit the DSS office in Abuja to know where they were kept but all efforts yielded no result.
CLO added that they were also informed that a lawyer who embarked on a search of the whereabouts of the victims was informed that the suspects were no more detained in Abuja and their case had been transferred to Minna in Niger State.
The organisation said the family of the victims were only demanding that their parents be released or be charged to court.
The organisation therefore, requested that the detained couple should be brought to justice or be freed from detention.
“CLO is herein using this medium to call for the release of these couple to reunite with their family who are suffering from malnutrition and hunger,” the petition reads.