Wives of Christian Volunteer Guards Decry Years of Alleged Detention

“I have not seen my husband in almost a year” — Salome Oloche

“I don’t know whether my husband is still alive five years after his arrest” — Blessing Ezekiel

By Ekani Olikita

(OBAGAJI, Benue State) — Two Christian women in central Nigeria’s Benue State say years of separation from their husbands have left their families struggling to survive.

Their husbands, who led a community volunteer security group, remain detained, leaving the women uncertain whether the men are still alive.

The women accuse Nigeria’s Department of State Services (DSS), the country’s domestic intelligence agency, of holding their husbands without meaningful access to their families. They are appealing to Nigerian authorities and the international community to intervene.

Silas Oloche, 30, general commander of the Agatu Youth Volunteer Guards, was arrested on November 2, 2025, at his home in Obagaji, according to his wife.

Similarly, Ezekiel Isah Ojepa, 40, the group’s general secretary and a teacher at Methodist High School in Obagaji, was arrested on June 13, 2021, according to his wife, Mrs Blessing Ezekiel Ojepa

Nigeria’s Department of State Services (DSS), arrested Oloche on November 2, 2025, at his residence in Obagaji, headquarters of Agatu Local Government Area (County) in Benue State, according to Daily Trust.  Prosecutors alleged he coordinated the purchase of ammunition intended for retaliatory attacks following repeated assaults on Agatu communities 

‘My Children Are No Longer in School’

In an interview with TruthNigeria at her home in Obagaji, Salome Oloche said more than 20 DSS personnel arrived in two Toyota Hilux vehicles on November 2, 2025 at approximately 2 a.m. and took her husband away while the family slept.

Contrary to DSS allegations that her husband possessed ammunition, Mrs Salome Oloche said

“They found nothing more than some empty canisters of grenade,”

She alleged that officers beat him during the arrest, breaking his hands and legs. 

“We learned he was in a DSS cell in Abuja, but I haven’t seen or heard from him since his arrest,”  she told TruthNigeria 

The couple have six children. According to Oloche, all of whom have stopped attending school, because she cannot afford their fees. She said the family sometimes eats only once a day and that she has sent some children to relatives who can help feed them.

“My husband’s sin is that he stood up for our community against the endless killing of our people by armed Fulani Ethnic Militia,” she told TruthNigeria.

She appealed to U.S. President Donald Trump and other Western leaders to help secure information about her husband’s whereabouts and press for a resolution to his case.

Five Years Without Answers

Blessing Ezekiel Isah said her husband, Ezekiel Isah Ojepa, was arrested on June 13, 2021, while bathing at home at about 10 a.m.

She said she had received no direct communication from him since the arrest and did not know where he was being held.

“I don’t know if my husband is still alive. There have been rumors that he might have been killed in the cell,” Blessing told TruthNigeria 

The couple have six children together. She also cares for four children from another relationship, she said, adding that financial hardship has prevented the children from attending school.

“I am begging the international community to pressure the Abuja government to release my husband if he is innocent, or release his corpse to us for a befitting burial if he is no more,” she told TruthNigeria 

Her account underscores the family’s uncertainty, although no evidence confirming her husband’s death was provided.

Residents Question the Detentions

Lucky Adanu, a resident of Egba community, defended both men, saying they helped local communities respond to attacks.

Silas Oloche and Ezekiel Ojepa are innocent of the accusations against them.

“They stood their ground to repel all attacks by Islamic Fulani terrorists on rural communities with the intention of seizing and converting them to caliphates. This is the only sin they have committed”, Lucky told TruthNigeria.

Another resident, Otene Ochoche, from Adagbo, questioned what he described as unequal treatment of suspected perpetrators of rural attacks and young people involved in community defense.

“The Fulani terrorists who are carrying automatic rifles such as AK-47, AK-49, machine guns and are responsible for the daily killing of our people have never been arrested or prosecuted, but our youths who are defending our communities are being arrested and incarcerated and tortured”, Otene complained in a phone interview with TruthNigeria 

Security Analyst: Due Process Needed

“Community security volunteers should not be above the law, but neither should they be subjected to indefinite detention without transparent legal proceedings,” said retired Col Yusuf Adimanyi, a Counterterrorism Expert in an interview with TruthNigeria.

 Authorities must disclose the legal basis for holding these men, provide access to lawyers and family members and establish their whereabouts. Where credible evidence exists, they should be prosecuted in accordance with the law; where it does not, they should be released.”

Wider Security Crisis

Agatu, headquartered in Obagaji, is an agricultural area in Benue State, about 50 miles southwest of Makurdi, the state capital. The predominantly Christian Idoma community has experienced deadly attacks attributed by residents to armed Fulani Ethnic Militia.

The Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa has documented extensive civilian deaths linked to armed Fulani militias in Nigeria. Its findings form part of wider concerns about violence, displacement and the protection of vulnerable rural communities. For the families of Oloche and Ojepa, however, the immediate questions are personal: where are their husbands, what evidence supports their continued detention and will they be allowed to see them?

Their appeals place renewed focus on the balance between national security and due process in a country facing persistent armed violence.

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