Thursday, November 5, 2026 - The Department of State Services (DSS) has released four people after clearing them of suspected membership of the proscribed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB). A security source told TheCable that the agency paid each of them ₦5 million in compensation.
The four were identified as Emele Uduma Ibe, Berefgagha
Appah, Ondokeyilemi Aggry and Oyeinmokebebeton Aggry. They were reportedly
arrested in May 2022 in Sampou and Akeddei, communities in the Kolokuma/Opokuma
and Sagbama local government areas of Bayelsa State.
According to the source, the DSS found that the four had
been misled into believing they would each receive ₦100,000 a month under the
federal government’s amnesty programme. The source said they did not know the
people who had approached them were IPOB members. Those individuals are now
standing trial, the source added. Deji Adeyanju, counsel for the four, received
them after their release and commended the DSS for its efforts to uphold human
rights in Nigeria.
The agency introduced a policy about a year ago to
compensate people it had wrongfully detained. In August, it released Mustapha
Marwana, a carpenter from Katsina who had been arrested over suspected links to
the Ansaru terrorist group, and paid him ₦3 million. In June, the DSS freed
Nura Idris after an internal review cleared him of involvement with Boko Haram.
The agency approved ₦3 million in compensation to help him rebuild his life.
In November 2025, the agency released Kenneth Nwafor after
three years in detention. He had been wrongly accused of belonging to IPOB and
received ₦5 million in compensation. A month earlier, the DSS released Chineze
Ozoadibe, an Abuja-based businesswoman who had been arrested by another
security agency on suspicion of illegal oil bunkering before being transferred
to DSS custody. She received ₦10 million in compensation.
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