Mrs. Ifedi was arrested alongside her husband, Mr. Sunday Ifedi, at their home in Enugu on 23 November 2021.
The Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC) has demanded accountability and justice following the confirmed death of Mrs. Calista Ifedi, who died while in the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS) at Wawa Barracks, Abuja.
In a statement issued in Lagos on Wednesday, RULAAC said the DSS’s admission that Mrs. Ifedi died in its custody amounted to confirmation of “a grave abuse of power, a flagrant violation of the Constitution, and a tragic failure of the Nigerian state to protect the right to life.”
Mrs. Ifedi was arrested alongside her husband, Mr. Sunday Ifedi, at their home in Enugu on 23 November 2021.
According to RULAAC, her alleged offence was that members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) had reportedly bought food from her restaurant.
“For this, she was violently taken away, detained indefinitely without charge, denied access to court, and disappeared into DSS custody,” the organisation said.
RULAAC noted that sustained advocacy by civil society groups, including Amnesty International Nigeria, later established the circumstances surrounding her arrest and prolonged detention.
Mr. Ifedi, who was released from detention in December 2025, reportedly told rights groups that the last time he saw his wife was in March 2022, when both were transferred from DSS headquarters to Wawa Barracks.
“They were separated at Wawa Barracks and never allowed to see each other again,” RULAAC stated, adding that Mr. Ifedi was never informed of his wife’s death.
According to the group, Mrs. Ifedi became seriously ill while in detention and repeatedly complained of severe chest pains.
“Rather than receive proper medical attention, her complaints were dismissed, mocked, and trivialised, with occasional administration of ulcer medication,” RULAAC said. “She was left to deteriorate until she died.”
The organisation also accused the DSS of deception, alleging that even when civil society organisations demanded her release, the agency denied that she was holding her in custody.
RULAAC described the circumstances of her death as amounting to “unlawful detention, enforced disappearance, torture through medical neglect, and extrajudicial killing,” all of which it said are prohibited under Nigerian and international law.
Of particular concern, according to the group, is an allegation that the DSS issued non-disclosure threats to Mr. Ifedi after his release.
“The DSS has allegedly warned him not to speak publicly about his detention or the circumstances surrounding his wife’s death,” RULAAC said, describing the move as “a further abuse of power and obstruction of justice.”
Reacting to the case, RULAAC Executive Director Okechukwu Nwanguma said Mrs. Ifedi was “an innocent civilian—an ordinary food vendor—whose life was unlawfully taken by an agency mandated to protect national security, not destroy lives.”
He added: “Accountability for her death is not optional—it is a legal and moral obligation.”
RULAAC called for the immediate public disclosure of the circumstances surrounding Mrs. Ifedi’s detention and death, the production of her remains for an independent autopsy, and an impartial investigation into the DSS, including those in the chain of command.
The group also demanded the closure of Wawa Barracks as a detention facility and protection for the Ifedi family from intimidation or reprisals.
“Justice delayed must not become justice denied,” Nwanguma said, pledging the organisation’s solidarity with the family and other victims of secret detention and state brutality in Nigeria.