Owerri prison authorities deny maltreating 112 pro-Biafra women currently being held in custody

OWERRI prison authorities have denied recent rumours of them maltreating the 112 women currently being detained for leading a protest earlier this week during which they demanded to know the whereabouts of Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob) leader Nnamdi Kanu.

Last Friday, the women were arrested and on Monday this week, they were arraigned in court after they demonstrated in Owerri asking the federal government to conduct a referendum for the creation of the Independent state of Biafra. They also demanded to know the whereabouts of Mr Kanu and threatened that the 2019 general elections would not hold if the referendum was not conducted.

Yesterday, there was an outrage in Owerri, the Imo State capital after the authorities at the Owerri Federal Prisons denied family members access to the women. However, prison spokesman James Madugba, said the authorities did not allow family members of the detained women to visit them because of prevailing circumstances.

He described as untrue the allegation that the prison officers received an order from above not to allow the remanded women access to their family members. Mr Madugba also denied that the armoured personnel carrier parked in the front of the prison and the presence of policemen and soldiers were there to scare off the relatives of the remanded women protesters.

Mr Madugba said: “There is no order from above asking us not to allow relatives of the women access to them. It is not also true that we exposed the women, especially the pregnant ones, to cold and inhuman environment.

“It is taxing to admit and register 112 people in any prison facility in Nigeria, so you don’t just bring people into the prisons and the next minute you want people to start visiting them. Prison is a regimented environment, there are regulations and the responsibility of interviewing, admitting and registering such number of women would take four days, so it is after these processes that you now allow family members to start visiting.”