600 killed in 10 months, as another massacre looms in S’East ---Intersociety
(Nigeria) The Nigerian military siege and terror in Old Eastern Nigeria particularly targeted at Igbo Ethnic Nationality and her population has resulted in the mass killing of at least 600 unarmed citizens of the region, according to a special report by International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, Intersociety.
The military mass killings had taken place in the past 10 months and 14 days of 2022 or 1st January to November 14, 2022, the report added.
The report
signed by Emeka Umeagbalasi, Criminologist/Researcher, Board
Chair @Intersociety and
Chinwe Umeche, Head, Democracy and Good Governance Programme @
Intersociety, noted
that the military siege and terror have also led to
burning down or destruction of at least 650 defenseless civilian
homes-perpetrated in repeated attacks carried out in over 81 communities during
which estimated 22,000 civilian occupants including ageing, infants, women and
children were forced out and rendered homeless or forced to take refuge
elsewhere including extended families’ homes.
The culpable military and police crack
squads and allied others had during the period arrested or abducted at least
1000 unarmed citizens and disappeared 100 without traces till date. In other
words, the militarily abducted and disappeared citizens run the high risk of
not returning alive to their families or being located alive.
The attacks on Old Eastern Nigerian
Trado-Judeo-Christian communities also occurred as a result of ethnic and
religious profiling and hatred-with leading state actor perpetrators being
soldiers of the Nigerian Army and STS, IRT, CTU, Anti
Kidnapping/Robbery/Cultism police crack squads and Nigerian Army-allied
Ebubeagu militias.
The DSS is also found to be skeletally
involved in open killing of unarmed Easterners. However, the Spy Service Agency
is deeply culpable in indiscriminate arrest or abduction of several unarmed
citizens taken into custody and held unlawfully and tortuously for one year and
above without trial and knowledge of their families.
Jungle Justice, Ethnic Profiling And
Hatred Fueled Military Siege And Killings In The East
The conduct atrocities or internationally
prohibited acts of the above named state actor security agencies are nothing
short of application of jungle justice including ethnic profiling, hearsay
evidence, extra jus, extrajudicial, extra legal, criminal labeling,
stigmatization, discriminatory and hate policing or soldiering. These are on
account of their full scale application solely targeting members of the
Trado-Judeo-Christian Igbo population and their neighbors; whereas the deployed
security forces turn total blind eyes on non Eastern genocidal groups
especially the Jihadist Muslim Fulani Herdsmen, militarily aided to settle in
forests, bushes and farmlands in the East. Apart from the fact that no single
conviction has been secured by the prosecutorial security agencies against any
of the Eastern indigenous citizens arrested alive and taken into long
detention; it is also observe that no single Jihadist Fulani Herdsman has been
arrested, paraded and judicially convicted or killed in gunfire since the
beginning of 2022; or held individually or pluralistically responsible for
abducting not less than 400 native Igbo-Christians and slaughtering of 200
others in the past 314 days of 2022.
Fresh Civilian Massacre And Other
Atrocious Conducts Looming In The East
Recent findings by the International
Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law have strongly indicated that fresh
military massacre of unarmed citizens in their hundreds is looming in the East
between this November 2022 and Election Day of 25th Feb 2023. This is against
the backdrop of the recent launching of “the 2022 Operation Golden Dawn” in
South-East, “Still Waters” in South-South and “Enduring Peace” in
North-Central. From available records or statistics, such military operations have
not only ended up in deceit but also led to mass murders, grisly civilian
property destructions, infliction of fears on the affected general populations
and aiding and abetting the genocidal activities of Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen
and allied others in bushes, farmlands and forests located in the three
Regions. Such recent military operations have also increased the number of
armed non state actor fighting parties and their counterfeiters as well as
‘street criminal entities (.i.e. gangs of armed robbers, kidnappers, cultists,
criminal miners of solid mineral resources). Sacrilegious acts such as sexual
harassment or abuse including rape, arrest of nursing mothers and abduction of
heavily pregnant women in their homes or maternity hospitals and termination of
their pregnancies, etc have been on the increase since the barbarous military
operations took off in the East in 2016 and allied others in late 2015. It must
statistically be remembered that in the first military operation carried out on
29th and 30th May 2016 in the East, not less than 140 unarmed citizens were
massacred in Onitsha, Anambra State and Asaba, Delta State and in the second
military operation launched in the Region between 12th and 15th Sept 2017, not
less than 180 unarmed citizens were massacred in Aba, Isi-Alangwa, Asa/Ogwe and
Umuahia located in Abia State.
Military Operations Aided Herdsmen
Jihadist Incursion Into Eastern Forests Since 2016
The armed Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen’s
jihadist incursion into the East particularly in forests, farmlands and bushes
of Delta State, Edo State, Ebonyi State, Anambra State, Enugu State, Imo State,
Abia State, Rivers State, Cross River State, Akwa Ibom and some parts of
Bayelsa State and Igbo parts of Kogi, Nassarawa and Benue States in the North-Central
was aided and abetted during the military operations starting from the first
Nigerian military operation in 2016. This is to the extent that the Jihadist
Fulani Herdsmen were militarily aided to invade and occupy not less than 700
locations in the three Regions above mentioned. The jihadist invasion and
occupation had taken place between beginning of 2016 and last quarter of
2018-with their reinforcements sustained since then under the watch and
protection of the military; leading to emergence of counter jihadist non state
actor armed opposition groups. The military siege and terror enveloping the
joint communal forest (“Be Atunshi Forest”) of Egudene (Akpawfu), Amechi Idoodo
and Amegunze Communities in Nkanu-East of Enugu State is a clear case in point.
It was found by Intersociety in 2021 that the Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen staged a
fierce come back in 2021 aided by the military after being communally dislodged
in March 2020. This also led to not less than six military raids, killings and
civilian house property burnings or destructions in Akpawfu Community and
environs since 2021. According to a former Deputy Inspector General of Police
in charge of ICT, Retired DIG Ozo Celestine Okoye, “Fulani Herdsmen armed with
AK-47 Riffles had already occupied 332 locations in the South-East alone”. See
the New Telegraph Newspaper of 27th March 2021.
81 Igbo-Christian Communities Under
Military Terror And Brigandage
There are no fewer than 81 Igbo communities
presently under military siege and terror. The military siege and terror in the
affected communities are perpetrated through permanent or temporal military
occupation of the areas or constant military patrols with attendant atrocious
and other internationally prohibited conducts. The communities are: Izombe/Oguta,
Imo State; interior parts of Ogbaru, Anambra State; Amangwu-Ohafia and its
neighbors in Ohafia; Uturu and its environs in Abia State; Asa, Ogwe,
Isialangwa, Etche and Owerre-Nta in Abia
State; Egudene (Akpawfu)/Amechi Idoodo/Amegunze in Nkanu-East, Enugu State;
Amichi/Ebenator/Ukpor, Anambra State; Uli, Orsumoghu, Lilu, Amorka and Ihiala
in Ihiala, Anambra State; Ihitenansa, Orsu-Ihiteukwa, Eziawa and Umuhu-Okabia
in Orsu, Imo State; Awomama, Amiri and Akatta in Oru East; Omuma, Otulu and
Mgbidi in Oru West, Imo State; Ajalli, Ufuma, Ndiokolo and Awgbu in Orumba
North; Nando, Nsugbe, Aguleri, Igbariam, Umueri and Umuleri in Anambra East,
Umunya and Nteje in Oyi; Omor, Igbakwu, Anaku and Omasi in Ayamelum; Agulu in
Anaocha, Amansea, Achalla and Ebenebe in Awka South; Umunze, Owerre-Ezukala and
Ogbunka in Orumba South, Anambra State; Ogwa and Mbaitoli in Mbaitoli, Imo
State; Orlu and its environs in Imo State; Umunneochi and its environs in Abia
State; Okigwe and its environs in Imo State; Isiukwuato and its environs in
Abia State; Ohaji-Egbema and its environs in Imo State; Obigbo and Ikwere in
Rivers State; Nsukka, Uzo-Uwani, Igbo-Eze North/South and Igbo-Etiti and parts
of Isi-Uzo in Enugu State; Ozalla-Nkanu West and parts of Udi, Ani-Nri, Awgu and
Ugwuogo-Nike-Opi Nsukka Axis in Enugu State; and Efium and Ezza in Ohaukwu,
Egedege/Ishielu, Ishiagu, Afikpo, Onicha and Abakiliki metropolis in Ebonyi
State.
Military Terror, Jihadist Attacks And
Street Criminalities Heightened In The Igbo 81 Communities
The military siege and terror in the named
81 Igbo-Christian communities have not only become a reoccurring decimal but
also heightened Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen attacks and attacks by well-armed
street criminal entities. It was observed in the course of this Special
Investigation that about 70% of the named communities host highest
concentration of Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen invasion and their jihadist genocidal
attacks since 2016 (Ukpabi-Nimbo). Many of the affected 81 communities are also
under attacks by non state actor street criminal entities including gangs of
kidnappers, armed robbers, cultists, ritualists and criminal miners of solid
minerals. In other words, the affected communities have continued to record the
highest incidences of the trio of military terror, jihadist attacks and attacks
by well-armed street criminal/counterfeiting entities. These are despite the
fact that the communities record the highest presence or concentration of
military and police deployments. It was further investigated and observed that
the deployed security forces in the areas have been turning their guns and
sworn duties against innocent and defenseless road users and local inhabitants
and channel same into protecting the jihadist and street criminal gangs as well
as aiding and abetting their criminalities including partaking in kidnapping,
mining, robbery and jihadist attacks. Totality of these has forced the affected
communities and visitor-road users into being militarily terrorized and
inflicted with fears or severally killed, abducted, tortured, disappeared,
sexually harassed-with their defenseless houses and other properties burned
down or destroyed beyond repair and recognition.
Disproportionate Security Postings And
Professional Crudity Aiding Military Terror In The East
There has been systematic policy of
disproportionate and discriminatory internal security and defense high ranking
postings by Nigerian Government and the country’s internal security and defense
establishments. This has been the case in the East since 2016. In
investigations carried out by Intersociety in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021 and
2022, it was observed that about 95% of the heads of security and defense
formations in the East have been allocated to senior security and defense
officers from outside the East who are mainly Muslims; a clear evidence of the
Government of Nigeria’s “structural violence” against the East. This is to the
extent that the current GOC, 6 Division of the Nigerian Army, Port Harcourt is
Major Gen Aminu Chinade (Northern Muslim), GOC 82 Division, Enugu is Major Gen
Umar Musa (Northern Muslim), 34 Brigade Commander, Obinze is Brig Gen Sani
Suleiman (Northern Muslim), 14 Brigade Commander, Ohafia is Brig Gen Adegoke
Adetuyi (South-West indigene), Brig Commander, 2 Brigade, Uyo is Brig Gen
Abubakar Wase (Northern Muslim), Commander, 302 Artillery of Nigerian Army,
Onitsha is Col M.B. Abubakar (Northern Muslim), Air Vice Marshal Ibikunle
Daramola is Air Officer Commanding Ground Tactical Command, Enugu; CP Mustapha
Bala Mohammed is Commissioner of Police,
Abia State (Northern Muslim), CP Ahmed Ammani is CP, Enugu State (Northern
Muslim), CP Muhammed Ali is CP, Delta State (Northern Muslim), CP Mohammed
Ahmed Barde is CP, Imo State (Northern Muslim) and CP Aliyu Garba is CP, Ebonyi
State (Northern Muslim). These are just to mention but a few.
As a matter of fact, too, none of the four
serving Police AIGs in the East in charge of Zone 6 Calabar (Kamaldeen Kola
Okunlola), Zone 13 Awka (Abutu Yaro), Zone 5 Benin (Lawan Jimeta) and Zone 9
Umuahia (Isaac Akinmoyede) is from the East. It is further observed that at
least 90% of the principal officers in all the military (army, navy and air
force), police and spy-police formations in Rivers, Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom, Delta,
Cross River, Edo, Enugu, Ebonyi, Imo, Anambra and Abia States are in the hands
of non-Easterners who are mainly Muslims. Totality of these explains the high
incidence of hateful and discriminatory policing and soldiering in the East
particularly in the South-East; to the extent that the ethnically and
religiously lopsided security and defense chiefs in the East have designated
citizens bearing Igbo-Christian names irrespective of their age bracket or
gender as “criminal class”.
Intersociety has documented pieces of evidence
showing how deployed security forces open fire on defenseless passers-by around
the crime scenes; killing them and labeling them “gunned down unknown gunmen or
IPOB/ESN members”. Soldiers also hide under flimsy excuses to launch deadly
attacks on several communities, killing locals and setting their houses ablaze.
Few days ago at Izombe-Oguta in Imo State, houses were burned down and scores
killed on account of alleged killing of a Dangote Truck Driver by non state
actor gunmen. In Isuofia-Aguata, Anambra State, a soldier escaping from the
scene of unknown gunmen attack corked his riffle and killed a defenseless
civilian running into his compound to escape the gunfire between soldiers and
some armed persons. The open partisanship and hateful policing and soldiering
by the deployed security forces and their commanders are so alarming and
shocking that non-Easterners especially members of Muslim population living in
the East are more protected and secured much more than members of the
indigenous Eastern Christian population. The study done by Intersociety in
2021/2022 to ascertain the ethnic and religious identity composition of the
Nigeria’s top security, defense and justice headships clearly indicated that
“out of 22 of such top positions, Muslims are in control of 18”. These have
corrupted and bastardized the principle of neutrality and secularism in the
procedural and operational codes or guidelines of the country’s security and
defense forces particularly in the East especially since June 2015.
Today, “membership and sponsorship of
IPOB/ESN” is recklessly and indiscriminately used by the deployed military and
police crack squads in the East to unleash grisly and egregious terror on
defenseless citizens of the region. The citizens in the Region are so profiled
or discriminated against in the line of security duty that those arrested with
Igbo-Christian names are instantly deemed as “condemned criminals” just because
of their ethnic and religious identities. Members of other tribes particularly
those bearing South-West (Yoruba) and Northern Muslim names are deemed
‘incapable of being felonious criminals” in the East. Intersociety has also
investigated and found that citizens arrested at social functions or
entertainment arenas in the East are instantly tagged “IPOB/ESN members” or
“mothers/fathers/wives/sons/daughters/in-laws/sisters/brothers/relatives/girlfriends
of IPOB/ESN members”. Arrested suspected street felons (.i.e. armed robbery
suspects and suspected cultists, hired killers, property thieves, rapists,
drug/human traffickers, kidnappers, murderers, carjackers, shoplifters, cyber
criminals, solid mineral criminal miners etc) are routinely paraded publicly as
“IPOB/ESN members” and later shot and killed or detained and tortured to death
or held incommunicado for years without trial. Heavily pregnant mothers or
those in the hospital labor wards are tagged “wives or sisters of IPOB/ESN
members” and abducted and humiliated.
Eight Of Every Ten Killed And Nine Of
Every Ten Arrested In The East Are Innocent And Defenseless
The public statements by the deployed
security and defense forces in the East are so fed with lies and concoctions
that 98% of them are vexatious, provocative and questionable. Such concocted
public statements also include statements on state actor intelligence and
operational conducts. Most of the military and police intelligence and
operational conducts emanate from “hearsay, spinning, mangling and concoctions”
and fueled by ethnic profiling, class criminalization and stigmatization. Such
biased and pollutant intelligence can also be best if described as “IPOB/ESN
Toxins”. By statistics, therefore, it is the finding of Intersociety that out
of every ten crimes reported and linked to “ESN/IPOB terrorism” in the East,
eight are most likely not correct or linked to what actually transpired; with
the truth being that they were perpetrated by members of street criminal gangs
or invading Fulani jihadists or state actor secretly funded armed
counterfeiters; that out of every ten persons arrested and taken into custody
by police (.i.e. IRT, STS, CTU, anti cult/robbery squads, etc) in connection
with “Biafra matters”, nine are most likely to be evidentially not involved and
eight unlikely to come back alive; that out of every ten persons abducted by
soldiers over “Biafra matters”, eight are most likely not to be evidentially
involved and nine unlikely to come back alive; that out of every ten persons
openly killed by police or soldiers and labeled “ESN/IPOB members”, eight, if
not nine are most likely to be defenseless and unarmed; that out of every ten
persons arrested by DSS over “Biafra matters”, eight are most likely not
involved and nine likely to be tortured, starved and held for several months or
years without trial and knowledge of their families; that out of every ten IPOB
activists arrested, eight are not likely to return alive; that out of every ten
dwelling houses burned down or razed by soldiers/ebubeagu militias/police crack
squads, etc, eight have nothing to do with “Biafra/IPOB matters” and the
remaining two are prohibited by law from being burned or razed; that out of
every ten Christian religious sanctuaries (.i.e. sacred places of worship for
Sabbath churches and related others) burned down or destroyed by soldiers and
police crack squads, same ten are prohibited from being burned or razed under
the law; and that out of every ten traditional religious sanctuaries or deities
targeted and destroyed over “Biafra matters”, same ten are victims of
horrendous crimes against property and a fundamental breach of the Geneva
Conventions of 1949 and its 1977 Protocols.
Army-Allied Ebubeagu Militias And Armed
Counterfeiters As Part Of Military Terror In The East
It is no longer hidden that nefarious
activities of the Nigerian Army-allied Ebubeagu Militia and various secret
Government funded armed groups counterfeiting mainstream non state actor anti
jihadist armed groups have been identified as part of the Nigerian Military
siege and terror in the East especially after April 2021 formation of the
killer militia. Sequentially speaking, Ebubeagu Militia is Nigerian Army-allied
while the armed counterfeiters killing, maiming and abducting defenseless
Easterners are Ebubeagu-allied; having been secretly formed and funded through
the instrumentality and cover of Ebubeagu militia. As a matter of strong
suspicion, Nigerian Army, Ebubeagu Militia, armed counterfeiters and Jihadist
Fulani Herdsmen appear to have a symbiotic relationship or a common goal of
unleashing terror and brigandage on Easterners-with Governments of Imo and
Ebonyi States as their major promoters.
In the impeccable words of Prof Obasi Igwe, a renowned professor of
political science at UNN “from the word go, the Ebubeagu was a nonstarter designed
to fail, and so it has done. There are allegations and issues of missing
engineers (in Ebonyi State), government-sponsored ‘IPOBs’ (ESN counterfeiters)…
the mysterious killing of Ahmed Gulak and other souls from near and abroad,
unhindered AK-47-bearing Fulani herdsmen involved in kidnappings, murders,
rapes and seizures on the highways, the existence of some Ebubeagu outfits with
imported Miyetti Allah or non-Igbo personnel; in short, the general
orchestration of insecurity in the East, with most of the fingers pointing at
the Federal Government in collaboration with some governors against their
peoples”.
Previous Statistics/Reports
Intersociety had on 19th Jan 2022 disclosed
in its Special Report that “Security Forces, Jihadists killed 1400 Defenseless
Civilians In 14 Months (Oct 2020-Dec 2021) In Eastern Nigeria,
Abducted/Arrested Over 4800, Disappeared 1000, Attacked 100 Igbo Communities,
Burned Down 1000 Dwelling Houses And Other Properties Valued At Over N40B And
Forced 44,000 Out Of Their Homes”. On 18th July 2022, Intersociety updated the
Special Report by disclosing that “Soldiers Of The Nigerian Military And Others
Deployed In Eastern Nigeria Raided 150 Communities In Past 20 Months (Oct
2020-June 2022), Burned Down Or Destroyed 1,450 Defenseless Civilian Homes,
Forced 51,000 Out of Their Ancestral Homes, Killed 1,360, Burned Down Or
Destroyed Or Looted Properties Worth N57B And Caused N600B Trade And Investment
Losses Following The Eastern Siege And Atrocities. The Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen
have been responsible for not less than 200 Eastern Christian civilian deaths
and 400 abductions while armed counterfeiters and street criminal entities
account for no fewer than 250 civilian deaths and up to 1000 abductions.
Homicidal and property destructive attacks arising from armed Eastern Security
Network (ESN) on civilians got drastically reduced following increase in deadly
attacks by those counterfeiting the activities of the Network. Finally, between
20th Oct 2020 and 14th Nov 2022, the
military and police crack squads in the East have accounted for 2000 civilian
deaths, 6000 arrests, raiding of 180 communities, razing of 1,700 houses and
rendering 60,000 homeless.
Instances Of Military Terror And Mass
Killings In The East: 1st January 2022-14th Nov 2022
Dozens of unarmed citizens were killed by
the military and its allied Ebubeagu militias between January and April 2022
including the 2022 Easter Eve mass killing and burnings at Ekeututu in
Orsuihiteukwa, Eziawa, Ihitenansa, Umuhuokabia, Awomama, Mgbidi, Ihiala and
other neighboring communities. Hundreds of civilian buildings were also set
ablaze. Scores have been killed in Oguta including five persons killed by
soldiers on 25th August 2022. Ten persons were killed by soldiers in Awka North
on July 15, 2022. Ten civilians were killed by soldiers on 26 June 2022 in
Yakurr, Cross River State. In Ebonyi State, eighteen (18) civilians were killed
in Ohakwu under controversial security circumstances. In seven days or
12th-19th May 2022, not less than 50 civilians were gunned down by the military
in Imo, Anambra, Ebonyi, Abia and Enugu including 25 lost in Imo, 15 in Anambra
and 10 others in Ebonyi, Abia and Enugu.
In Ogbaru, Uli, Nteje and Ukpor in Anambra State, no fewer than eighty
(80) lives were lost to soldiers between June and July 2022. On 17th July 2022,
fourteen (14) unarmed citizens were massacred by Nigerian Army-allied Ebubeagu Militia
in Awomama, Imo State. The slain victims were massacred on their way home from
a marriage function. A day earlier, over a dozen unarmed citizens were abducted
and disappeared by the militias at a betting arena in Okwudor, Imo State.
The Izombe Community in Oguta had
militarily been invaded at least five times since January by soldiers of 34
Brigade, Obinze in Imo State; killing several civilians and burning dozens of
civilian houses and other properties. The latest of such attacks on the Community
took place on Monday, 7th Nov 2022 when soldiers invaded the Community over
alleged killing of a Dangote Truck driver. The Community is an oil-rich and
home to some suspected armed crude oil thieves who the Nigerian Army classified
as “IPOB/ESN members” and use as a cover to attack the Community. Ebem-Ohafia
and Amangwu-Ohafia Communities in Ohafia, Abia State are one of the worst hit
areas in the East under military siege and terror. The communities have been
regularly raided, leading to dozens of civilian deaths and razing of several
defenseless houses and other properties. In the latest attack by the Nigerian
Army on Thursday, 3rd Nov 2022, no fewer than ten civilians were killed and 50
civilian houses burned down. The Nigerian Army later admitted “killing three
IPOB members who abducted and killed a soldier”.
The widespread attacks by the military on
Igbo-Christian communities and their civilian houses and other properties also
involved war-grade attacks such as use of military helicopters, machine guns
and explosives. Not only that Obigbo in Rivers State is still under military
siege by soldiers of 6 Division in Port Harcourt but also Egudene-Akpawfu in
Nkanu-East, Enugu State had lost dozens of civilian houses and civilian lives
to Nigerian Army under 82 Division since the beginning of January 2022. Since
late Dec 2021, the Community had been invaded at least five times. The Nigerian
Army had in 2021, following the communal lodgment of Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen
from the Community’s “Be Atunshi Forest” shared with communities of Amechi
Idoodo and Amegunze; assembled the Community’s reps at its Onokolo Market
Square and gave them matching order to “produce those responsible for the
dislodgment or be collectively treated as flashpoint for ESN/IPOB camp”;
thereafter, hell was let loose on the Community till date. On the Christmas of
2021, soldiers stormed the Community and disrupted the Eve of Christian church
services, burned down several civilian houses and arrested scores and killed
three. Days later, the Army issued a statement, labeling one of those arrested
(Godwin Nnaji) as “ESN Commander being looked for”. Citizen Godwin Nnaji later
turned out to be a 40-year-old Mason arrested in his sleep sharing same bed
with his blind mother. In one of its latest
raids carried out on 14th and 15th Oct 2022, the Army engaged in land and air
bombardments in the “Be Atunshi Forest” and its surroundings including nearby
civilian homes, leading to destruction of lives and properties. This is to the
extent that schools and hospitals in the area have been deserted and social
activities grounded; thereby throwing the Community and its environs into a
ghost town. At least three persons were killed in nearby Amechi Idoodo
Community as well as others killed in Akpawfu during the attack. The Army later
claimed that it is “searching for IPOB/ESN hideouts”. In 2021, the Army raided
the Community and its environs more than three times. Similar situation was
also the case in Awgu where soldiers in Nov 2021 and Oct 2022 invaded Awgu
including Mgbowo Community, razing several civilian houses and killing scores;
claiming to be “looking for IPOB/ESN members/commanders”.
The ‘Four-Corner’ and environs located in
Ozalla, Nkanu-West in Enugu State has been under Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen siege
and attacks since early second week of Nov 2022. This is to the extent of
disrupting vehicular and pedestrian movements and other social activities along
the Four-Corner section of the ever-busy Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway and
adjoining roads. The ongoing sustained jihadist attacks in the area are taking
place despite the area hosting at least six Army checkpoints including those at
Okpanku and Udi Hill and four others mounted few meters away from each other
between the Four-Corner and Independence Layout Junction. The six Army
roadblocks are manned by soldiers of the 103 Battalion under the command of Lt
Col Tagwoi, a non Easterner. While defenseless road users and locals in the
area are routinely targeted by soldiers at the six roadblocks for molestation,
brutalization and extortion; the Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen are provided safe
passage and cover to assemble and launch jihadist terror attacks on defenseless
road users and residents of the area.
In Ebonyi State, the State Government has
continued to use Ebubeagu militia to attack and unleash terror on its critics.
A former Government Commissioner, politician and renowned journalist, Chief
Abia Onyeike was abducted at night on Wednesday, 8th Nov 2022 by Ebubeagu
militias and bundled to a police station located at Old Government House in
Abakiliki where he was inflicted with bruises and deep cuts and nearly killed.
He was accused of “constantly criticizing the Governor and State Government of
Ebonyi State” and was saved by the swift intervention of the NPF Headquarters,
Abuja. Not forgotten was the mass abduction and killing of citizens of the East
by Police IRT and STS Squads and others using “IPOB/ESN membership” as a cover.
The abduction and 18 months detention of Midwife Ifeyinwa Egole by Police IRT
is a case in point. She was arrested in Feb 2021 in Orlu, Imo State along with
her husband (Sabbath Pastor Cletus Egole) and accused of “using their Sabbath
Church as a training ground for IPOB/ESN”. The Police IRT also burned down her
Maternity Hospital, their family house and church. Not done, they took the
couple to Police IRT’s Bureau of Intelligence, Abuja where Pastor Cletus Egole
was killed in custody in June 2021.
As if that was not enough, Sabbath Pastor
Cletus Egole’s youngest brother, Pentecostal Pastor Chinedu Egole was abducted
in his Port Harcourt base and killed in May 2021 in police custody at Tiger
Base of Police IRT in Owerri. The Police IRT also forced the couple’s first son
and Pastor Cletus Egole’s immediate younger brother (Eugene) into disappearance
without traces. Midwife Ifeyinwa Egole was held by Police IRT amidst severe
torture for 16 months without trial till she was granted bail in June 2022.
Mrs. Ngozi Umeadi, an Insurance staff, was a nursing mother with a newly
delivered infant when she was arrested by Police IRT on 21st May 2021 and
accused of “IPOB membership”. She was held by Police IRT without trial and
access to her family and child for a year and six months until her court bail
and release on 24th Oct 2022. In the blue law hours of 30th August 2022,
soldiers of 34 Brigade, Obinze in Imo State, invaded a Community Health Center
at Amalulu in the State and broke the doors of the Heath Center, arrested
scores of the staff crew members and patients on admission including heavily
pregnant women in labor wards. The soldiers later took them away, claiming that
“they got an intelligence report that a suspected IPOB member’s wife was
admitted at the Health Center as she was about to put to bed”. These instances
are just to mention but a few.
“Membership Of IPOB” Now A License To
Kill, Maim, Abduct, Torture And Burn Houses In The East
“Membership of IPOB (Indigenous People of
Biafra)” has now become a license for deployed military and police crack squads
to hatefully and unlawfully kill, maim, abduct; torture and rape unarmed
citizens in the East and burn down or destroy their houses and other
properties. This is to the extent that the security forces now go about with
reckless abandon killing, maiming, abducting, molesting, torturing, sexually
abusing and degrading civilian citizens and setting their houses and other
properties ablaze using “IPOB membership or ESN membership” as a cover. It has also gotten to an alarming level of
soldiers invading communities at will and unchecked and engaging in wanton
destruction of civilian lives and properties-claiming to be “looking for
IPOB/ESN hideouts or members or commanders”. The sacred Palace of the
Traditional Ruler of Akama-na-Asaa (HRH Eze Agugoesi) in Ihitenansa, Orsu LGA
in Imo State was nearly burned down and visited with heavy destruction in Jan
2022 by soldiers of 34 Brigade. It was the business card of the first son,
Prince Barr Agugoesi that saved the Palace from being burned down. The leader
of the arsonist soldiers, a Northern Muslim Captain, later told the
Lawyer-Prince on phone that “they received intelligence that the palace was a
camp for IPOB/.ESN”.
Strictly and legally speaking, ‘IPOB
activists’ are specifically unarmed in Nigeria till date and no Nigerian law
permits security forces to kill unarmed civilians under whatever guise or
criminal labeling. The law also does not empower security operatives to kill
unarmed citizens under a proscribed organization except caught in felonious
acts with riffles, shooting, killing, maiming and destroying. This is more so
when members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria or Shiite Muslims which also
had their Islamic Movement vindictively proscribed have been moving and worshipping
freely with their members and places of worship not militarily attacked or
targeted for death or destruction. Contrary is the case when compared to
ongoing, unchecked and untamed mass killings and property destructions
including widespread attacks on Sabbath churches and traditional sanctuaries in
the East using “IPOB membership” as a cover.
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