The Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Center (RULAAC) has petitioned the General Officer Commanding the 81st Division of the Nigerian Army over the 3 month detention of a civilian, Jude Eze Ibe, at the Dodan barracks in Lagos.

RULAAC, in the petition signed by Okechukwu Nwanguma, the executive director of the group, said that Ibe was illegally detained in the cell on the orders of the military police commander, Brigadier General ML Abubakar.

Ibe was allegedly arrested and detained in connection with desert boots scavenged from a store in Army Market, Oshodi (Arena), according to his wife’s account.

The trouble started when the military police went to “Arena” on March 5 to collect debts from a market person.

According to Amarachi, the detainee’s wife, military personnel spotted some desert boots that Ibe had kept in his neighbor’s store because his store was filled with goods recently imported from China.

Upon sighting the boot, military personnel seized the goods, ordering Ibe to report to their office the next day. He obeys, visiting alongside a friend and salesman.

However, they were arrested on allegations of supplying boots used by members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

She added that the other men were however released two weeks later while her husband remained in custody on the pretext that he had not obtained a license before getting involved in the sale of the boots.

Amarachi has called for her husband’s immediate release, saying his continued detention has affected his ailing father. She added that her husband also suffered from high blood pressure as she had expressed concerns about his health.

The RULAAC petition urged the Commander of GOC 81 to secure Ibe’s immediate release and ensure that appropriate disciplinary action is taken against the officers who unlawfully detained the businessman.

The petition reads: “The Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Center (RULAAC) is writing to you to call your attention and seek your intervention to order the immediate release of Mr. Jude Eze Ibe, a man of civilian who sells shoes at the Oshodi Army Market known as ‘Arena’ and was detained at Dodan Barracks VI for over 3 months, allegedly on the orders of the Military Police Commander , Brigadier General ML Abubakar.

“Ms. Favor Amarachi Ibe, the wife of the detained businessman, informed us that her husband was arrested by members of the Military Police on March 5, 2022 and detained at Dodan Barracks for boots that they saw and confiscated from her store She informed us that her husband was selling “rubber slippers” (thongs) at the “Arena”.

“According to Ms. Ibe, military police personnel had come to the ‘Arena’ to collect debts allegedly held by a Chinese man by her husband’s neighbor at the market. They saw boots in the neighbor’s shop which she said her husband had given her to keep in his shop because his own shop was full of goods he had just imported from China.

“She said her husband kept 77 pairs of Desert Boots in the shop of the man the military police came to arrest and they saw and took the boots and asked him to report to their office.

“He reported and was locked up by the military police, alongside his friend and salesman who accompanied him. They released them the next day and asked them to come again the next day with her husband. They reported again on March 7, 2022 and were advised that “they received a call from Abuja asking them to hand them over to 81 Div. Ikoyi.

“They took them to the Dodan barracks. Two weeks later, they let his friend and the other boy go, and my husband is still detained.

According to Ms Ibe, “they did all the necessary investigations and said they didn’t see anything, but the investigator said that the ‘Oga’ (boss) identified to him the person who provided the IPOB boots. “.

She said the only reason for tagging him as a boot supplier to the IPOB is simply because he is an Igbo man.

“We don’t know that the Military Police is a debt collection agency. They were with his phone. They also came to their store and saw nothing involving. They did not establish any link between the detained man and the IPOB except that he is an Igbo man.

“He was arrested because of the Desert Boots, about 20 pairs of which are camouflaged.”

“According to additional information from Ms Ibe, detention officers say he is supposed to obtain a license before selling the boots. She said the boots weren’t really part of her husband’s line of business, only that he came across them while buying goods in China and felt they might sell since he was making trade in the army market.

“She added that the boots are expired, that’s why since 2020 till date no one has agreed to buy them. Ms. Ibe went several times to secure her husband’s release, to no avail She informs us that her husband is the only child of his parents and the sole breadwinner.

“His prolonged and illegal detention deprived his elderly father of urgently needed medical care. He himself also needs urgent medical attention. He suffers from high blood pressure and his wife is seriously worried about his condition. She demands that her husband be released immediately.

“They could have at worst handed him over to the police if they thought he had broken the law.

“RULAAC calls on you to order his immediate release and ensure appropriate disciplinary action against the officers who unlawfully detained him as well as get involved in debt collection.”