Renowned Nigerian human rights lawyer and lead counsel to the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Sir Ifeanyi Ejiofor, has called on the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Attorney-General of the Federation to urgently intervene and order the immediate release of hundreds of Igbo youths being unlawfully detained at the Wawa Barracks.
Ejiofor made the call in a statement issued on Wednesday titled “Midweek Musing: When Justice Looks North and Blinks South — The Irony of Selective Prosecution and the Silent Suffering of a People.”
He lamented that the detained youths have spent an unreasonably long time in custody without trial,describing their continued detention as a grave violation of their constitutional rights.
According to the human rights lawyer, there appears to be a disturbing disparity in the application of justice between Nigeria’s regions, particularly between the South-East and the North.
He alleged that individuals from the North who were implicated in acts of banditry and terrorism during the tenure of former Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, SAN, were never prosecuted, while Igbo youths are routinely arrested, blindfolded, and consigned to prolonged detention.
Ejiofor stated that Nigeria has tested the patience of the Igbo people for far too long and that the continued detention of these youths lacks any legal or moral justification.
He further referenced recent revelations from the Department of State Services (DSS) that emerged during the ongoing prosecution of the former Attorney-General, noting that these disclosures have shocked many Nigerians. According to him, during Malami’s tenure, the former Attorney-General allegedly failed, refused, or neglected to prosecute individuals predominantly of northern extraction whose names had been publicly listed years earlier by security agencies as alleged financiers of terrorism.
“These were not mere rumours or street gossip,” “They were conclusions reportedly reached through extensive intelligence investigations.” Ejiofor stated.
He noted that the irony of the situation is impossible to ignore.
He explained that those individuals were accused of funding some of the most violent non-state actors destabilising Nigeria, including Boko Haram, ISWAP, armed bandit groups, and allied jihadist networks.
Despite claims that their activities were supported by credible and verifiable intelligence, Ejiofor said prosecutions were mysteriously abandoned, investigative files were closed, and some of the suspects were quietly cleared.
“One is compelled to ask,” he queried, “was terrorism suddenly eradicated, or was it simply forgiven?”
A Different Standard in the South-East
Ejiofor contrasted this situation with developments in the South-East, where, he said, young people are routinely arrested and detained for extended periods based on mere suspicion, association, or profiling. While acknowledging the importance of allowing judicial processes to run their full course and avoiding premature conclusions, he maintained that the nature and content of the charges disclosed so far raise deeply troubling questions about fairness, equity, and the impartial application of justice in Nigeria.
He urged the Federal Government to act decisively, restore public confidence in the justice system, and end what he described as the selective prosecution and systemic injustice suffered by the Igbo people—beginning with the immediate release of all unlawfully detained youths at the Wawa Barracks.
Read the full statement:
MIDWEEK MUSING
WHEN JUSTICE LOOKS NORTH AND BLINKS SOUTH
The Irony of Selective Prosecution and the Silent Suffering of a People
There are moments in a nation’s history when the law, instead of standing tall as the blind guardian of justice, appears to tilt, ever so subtly towards convenience, geography, or ethnicity. Nigeria, regrettably, seems to be living through one such moment.
Recent revelations emanating from the Department of State Services (DSS), in the course of the ongoing prosecution of a former Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, SAN, have startled many Nigerians. While it is both prudent and responsible to refrain from drawing premature conclusions, given that judicial processes are still unfolding, the content of the charges so far disclosed, raises deeply troubling questions. Questions not merely of legality, but of conscience, consistency, and credibility.
Terror Financiers Known; Yet Untouched
One limb of the allegations reportedly suggests that, during his tenure, the former Attorney-General failed, refused, or neglected to prosecute individuals whose names, obviously, predominantly of northern extraction, had been published years earlier by security agencies as financiers of terrorism. These were not whispers from street corners, but conclusions reportedly drawn from extensive intelligence investigations. The irony is difficult to ignore.
These individuals were alleged to have funded some of the most vicious non-state actors tormenting the Nigerian state: Boko Haram, ISWAP, armed bandit groups, and allied jihadist networks. Their alleged activities were said to be backed by verifiable intelligence. Yet, prosecutions were abandoned, files closed, and clean bills of health quietly issued. One might ask: was terrorism suddenly cured, or merely forgiven?
A Different Standard in the South-East
Now, let us juxtapose this with what transpired in the South-East.
Speaking not from hearsay but from direct professional experience, I can state, without fear of contradiction, that my law office personally defended hundreds of Igbo youths, fathers, mothers, and breadwinners who were arbitrarily arrested across the South-East. Some were seized on their way to burials, others at their workplaces, and a few; only the “fortunate” ones, were eventually brought before the courts.
They were charged with offences grandly labelled as terrorism, membership of terrorist organisations, illegal possession of firearms, and other elaborately framed but manifestly unfounded allegations. Some of these charges were instituted before the Federal High Court in Abuja, at the instance and upon the advice of the very office of the former Attorney-General of the Federation, now under scrutiny.
After full trials, every one of those cases collapsed. The accused persons were discharged and acquitted. No evidence. No links. No crimes known to law.
Yet the damage had been done.
Some of the accused died in custody. Others spent months and years incarcerated, their lives and livelihoods destroyed; only to be told, belatedly, that they had committed no offence at all.
Meanwhile, the alleged real sponsors of terror, those whose activities shook the nation, remained free, visible, and curiously untouched.
Wawa Barracks: Detention Without End
Even more disturbing is the fate of hundreds of Igbo youths who have now spent four to six years in detention at the notorious Wawa Barracks, Niger State.
Their “offence”?
Some of them travelled to Abuja in 2021 to observe court proceedings relating to the trial of Nnamdi Kanu. They were not arrested at the court premises. Their vehicle was trailed to Lokoja, where they were apprehended while returning home to the East.
To this day, they remain in detention, without trial, without conviction, without justification known to law.
In a country governed by a Constitution, one struggles to understand how solidarity became a crime, or how spectatorship in a courtroom mutated into terrorism.
Justice Must Not Wear Regional Glasses
It bears repeating: this commentary is not an attempt to prejudge ongoing proceedings. Rather, it is a call to national memory in a country that too often forgets yesterday’s truths by tomorrow morning.
Selective justice is not justice.
Delayed justice is not justice.
Ethnic justice is a contradiction in terms.
A system that prosecutes the weak with enthusiasm while shielding the powerful with silence does not fight terrorism; it rebrands it.
A Final Appeal
I therefore, respectfully but firmly call on the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Attorney-General of the Federation to urgently intervene and order the immediate release of the hundreds of Igbo youths still languishing in unlawful detention at Wawa Barracks.
They have waited long enough.
Nigeria has tested their patience long enough.
The law has no justification left.
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