Police investigate arrest of 21 year old lady detained since June just because her boyfriend is an ESM member

INSPECTOR-general of police Usman Baba has ordered investigation into the detention of a 21-year-old lady who was arrested by Intelligence Response Team (IRT) operatives in Imo State just for being the girlfriend of an Eastern Security Network (ESN) member.

Apparently, the lady identified as Glory Okolie, was apprehended on June 17 and her arrested has generated a public outcry. She was reportedly apprehended by security operatives looking to track down a suspected member of the ESN said to be her boyfriend.

Human rights activist and the director-general of Behind Bars Initiative, Harrison Gwamnishu, posted details about Ms Okolie’s unlawful detention on Facebook and how she was allegedly turned into a maid, washing clothes and cooking food at the IRT office in Owerri, before she was later moved to the unit’s headquarters in Abuja. Cash transaction slips of N220,000 allegedly collected by the policemen from Ms Okolie’s relations were also attached to the post.

Mr Gwamnishu said: “21-year-old Miss Glory Okolie, who enrolled for the 2021 Jamb exam, has been in police detention since 17th June, 2021 till date. She left the house and never returned.

“Since 17th June, her family had searched for her in hospitals and mortuaries but couldn’t find her. Ending of June 2021, a young man who was freed from the IRT office Tiger Base, Owerri, told the Okolie family that he saw Glory in the custody of IRT officers cooking and washing clothes for them.

“The family immediately went to the IRT office and requested to see Glory and bail her out and till date, it’s been one story or the other. The IRT officers allegedly continued to extort the family and denied them access to see Glory and our team launched an investigation and discovered Glory has been transferred to Abuja and tagged an Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob)/ESN member.”

After the story went viral, Mr Baba formed a committee to investigate the matter.  Mr Gwamnishu added that his team members were at the IRT office on Thursday and met with the head of the unit, Olatunji Disu, who recently took over from Abba Kyari, who was suspended after being implicated by an international fraudster, Ramon Abass, popularly known as Hushpuppi.

Mr Gwamnishu added: “The office is cooperating with us and the current head of the unit said he just resumed and that the inspector general of police commissioned a committee to look into people arrested for Ipob issues after the Glory story went viral. He pointed out that the committee is already profiling the suspects and there are more than 100 of them who are currently being interviewed.