#GloriaOkorie: Groups demand release of lady detained for 80 days

Juliana Francis

The coalition of 48 civil society organisations (CSOs), have demanded that the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Usman Alkali Baba, should immediately complies with order court, to either grant bail to 21-year-old Gloria Okorie, who had been held in detention for 80 days or charge her to court.

The groups condemned the continued incarceration of Gloria in utter disregard to Court orders directing the police to either release or produce her in Court.

Gloria's parents were in search of her for more than two weeks before they found out she was in the custody of the Nigeria Police Force Intelligence Response Team (IRT) in Owerri, Imo State. A commercial cyclist, Izuchukwu Okeke, 41, who was conveying Gloria, and was arrested along with her, was detained at the Tiger Base, Owerri office of the IRT. He alerted Gloria’s parents of her whereabouts after his release from two weeks detention.

Following her discovery, police moved her to Abuja and police were alleged to have extorted her parents and didn’t allow them to have access to her.

According to the groups, “Following the outrage that greeted public knowledge of Gloria’s secret detention, and revelations that she had been used for washing clothes and doing other humiliating chores, the police issued a belated statement in attempt to save face, claiming that Gloria is an informant to IPOB/ESN, that they would charge her to Court 'soon' upon conclusion of “investigations.”

The police re-arrested and detained Okeke on July 5, for revealing that Gloria was in their custody. The police allegedly warned his family never to show up at the police station to ask for him or they would be shot. Okeke’s whereabouts has allegedly remained unknown till date.

“Despite police's promise to 'soon' charge Gloria to court, they have continued to hold her in unlawful custody and her family and lawyers have been denied access to her since 17 June, 2021 when she was arrested -  nearly 80 days as of today,” stated the groups.

According to the groups, following a fundamental rights action brought on her behalf before an Abuja High Court presided over by His Lordship, Honourable Justice Sylvester Oriji, on August 27, 2021, the Court ordered the police to either release Gloria from unlawful custody or charge her to court. “But the police have continued to detain her in flagrant disobedience to the orders of the Court. She has been held incommunicado, denied access to her family and lawyers,’ the groups alleged.

They described the continued detention of Gloria as unconstitutional and contemptuous of the Court, adding: “It is a further violation of her fundamental rights to personal liberty, dignity of her human person, presumption of innocence and fair trial. The actions of the police amount to a subversion of due process and rule of law. Section 35 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria guarantees Gloria’s right to liberty. They stressed that the constitution provides a suspect should be arraigned within 24 or 48 hours, where the court is not within a 40km radius. Otherwise, the police are obligated to release the accused or detained person on bail.”