The Nigeria Police Force has admitted to arresting and detaining Gloria Okolie, a 21-year-old lady, in Imo State.

Gloria was arrested on June 17 by operatives of the Intelligence Response Team (IRT)  as bait to get a member of the Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB) and kept in detention for several weeks as a maid.

Harrison Gwamnishu, the Director-General of Behind Bars Initiative, posted about the lady’s unlawful detention on Facebook, narrating how she was turned into a ‘maid,’ washing clothes and cooking at the IRT office in Owerri.

“Miss Glory Okolie, who enrolled for the 2021 JAMB exam, has been in police detention from 17th June 2021till date. She left the house and never returned,” he said.

“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.”

On Friday, Usman Baba, the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), ordered an investigation into the illegal detention and enslavement of Glory, following social media uproar.

However, the Police Force Headquarters, Abuja, on Sunday, said the lady was arrested and detained for “her complicity in the series of deliberate and well-coordinated attacks on security formations, other critical national infrastructure, including INEC offices, and killing of security operatives in the South-Eastern part of the country”.

According to a press statement signed by CSP Aremu Adeniran, the Imo State Deputy Force Public Relations Officer, Glory was arrested “following ongoing investigations and implementation of the special operation, Operation Restore Peace, to amongst other things, break the information, drugs and arms supply chain to the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and its armed wing, the Eastern Security Network in the South-East region”.    

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“Police Investigations revealed that Gloria Okolie is a member of IPOB/ESN in Imo State, who worked closely with one Benjamin Uzoma Emojiri a.k.a “Onye Army”, one of the ESN commanders earlier declared wanted by the Police, for his lead roles in planning, coordinating and executing the attack on the Imo State Police Command Headquarters and Imo State Headquarters of the Nigerian Correctional Service,” the press statement read in part.

“Her arrest and the revelations from her confession assisted the Police in the arrest of ‘Onye Army’, a major breakthrough in the quest to restore law and order in the South-East region.” 

The Police also claimed that Gloria was taking advantage of her gender and innocent looks to carry out espionage against military and police targets on behalf of IPOB,  serving as an “intermediate person, who receives cash, drugs and weapons on behalf of IPOB/ESN and delivers the same to their commanders in their camps”. 

“Through her clandestine criminal activities, she actively aided and abetted the multiple acts of murder, arson and malicious damage to both private and public property by the ESN. A lot of the deadly and unfortunate attacks on security personnel and assets, with numerous fatalities, have the imprimaturs of Gloria Okolie, the spy girl of ESN militants.”