*You dodged issues of human rights violations raised in our report, Intersociety to Nigerian Army
The youth wing of Nigeria's Southeast socio-cultural group, the Ohaneze Youth Council, OYC, has warned of an imminent heightened security crisis in the region, saying that there could be mass killings in various Igbo communities if the people fail to do the needful.
In a statement by the National President of OYC, Igboayaka O. Igboayaka the group alleged that communities in the Southeast have been encircled at their Kogi and Benue borders and that Nigeria security agents are neglecting their duty of protecting the people of the region.
OYC noted that the recent massacre of locals by armed herdsmen in Eha-Amufu could be the tip of the iceberg, Daily Post reports.
According to the statement, “The recent incident which claimed the lives of over 100 people at Eha-Amufu is just the beginning; there will be a bazaar of killing that will spread across Ozalla, Akegbe, Ituku Ogwu, Elugwu Ezike, Igbo-entity, Okigwe, Umunze, Arondizuogu, Umuchu, Uturu, Isuochi, Umunneochi, Ohaji Egbema, Oguta, Nekede, Mbaise, Ngor Okpala, Nkalagu, Ezzamgbo, etc, if Ndigbo continues to entrust the security of their lives and property to the hands of Governors who allegedly lack empathy.
”It’s now crystal clear that the lives and property of Ndigbo can no longer be secured or protected by the present APC-led government of President Mohammadu Buhari.”
The OYC, therefore, charged various Community Town Union (CTU), Presidents, and community Youth Leaders in Igbo land to urgently begin recruiting able-bodied youths to defend their communities from armed invaders.
“At this juncture, Ohanaeze Youth Council calls on Community Town Union (CTU), Presidents, and community Youth Leaders in Igbo land to commence immediate recruitment and establishment of “Igbo Community Defenders” against any form of invaders and Fulani Jihadists in Southeast.
OYC further said; “In a failed country like Nigeria, it’s naturally the right of every living thing to resort to unavoidable self-defense. Ohanaeze Youth Council, therefore, calls all Igbo Youths to pick arms equivalent to what Fulani herdsmen, Bandits, and Jihadists are using to invade Igbo communities.
“It’s obvious that even in days and years to come, the characters we had and the characters we will have as Southeast Governors lack the courage and Political-will to defend Ala-Igbo.
“We, therefore, call upon Igbo billionaires technocrats, retired Service men, businessmen, and our diasporan brethren of goodwill to support Ohanaeze Youth Council for a strategic self-defense security network at every community in Igbo land otherwise there will be a harvest of killings, a coordinated massacre of indigenous people of Old Easterners.
OYC advised that the Community Security Network when established should be supervised by community youth leaders and town union presidents and free from the influence of SouthEast Governors.
“The Community Security Network must solely be controlled by the Youth Leaders of various communities, Town Union Presidents and compulsorily without the influence or control of SouthEast Governors. This is the viable way out, otherwise, there will be further rain of blood in Igbo land”, OYC warned
Crude and partisan soldiering worsening S'east insecurity - Intersociety
Meanwhile, the human rights group, the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) has condemned what it calls the Nigeria Army's “partisanship and crude soldiering” which are worsening insecurity in the South-East region.
Intersociety was responding to the reaction of the Nigeria Army to issues raised by the rights group in its report of 24, November 2022 as regards "the lukewarm attitude of the military" to the recent invasion and killings in Enugu communities and other Southeast communities by killer herdsmen.
The group, in a release on Thursday signed by its principal officers - Emeka Umeagbalasi, Obianuju Igboeli, and Chidinma Udegbunam described the reaction by the Nigeria Army as "diversionary because of its futile attempts to dodge the main issues raised in our statement of Nov. 24, 2022."
Intersociety stated that the Nigeria Army’s reaction also contained deliberate misrepresentation, and failed to address specific issues of human rights violations in the region as raised by the civil society.
The rights organization insisted that "the South-East region is under the siege of security without local content" as over 90 percent of security personnel posted to the region belonged to the northern region.
Intersociety said, "It is also saddening and deeply regrettable that the once secularised and cherished but now ethnoreligious, sectionalized and radicalized, Nigerian Army is the leading perpetrator in the state actor coercive terrorization of the South-East region.
"The Nigerian Army is also found to be the leading aider and abettor of the non-state actor insecurity including terrorization of the South-East defenseless civilian population and their properties. The Army’s claims of being “professional and ethnoreligiously neutral” are loudly laughable and the greatest joke of the Year 2022 ending in 30 days from today."
Intersociety cited the invasion of several communities in Enugu state during which many people were killed and over 14 villages sacked by armed Fulani herdsmen, saying that the military including soldiers and principal officers of the Nigerian Army under 82 Division in Enugu including Cross Rivers State and 6 Division in Port Harcourt including Igbo parts of Delta State under 63 Brigade conspicuously ignored the killings.
The group accused the military of being quick only in burning homes and raiding communities in search of ESN members.
"The Nigerian Army has been brutally fractured and bastardized since July 2015. This is to the extent that it now bears the atrocity conduct attributes of the failed Armies of Libya and Somalia. Instead of providing public and citizen security and safety in the East, especially the South-East in line with their constitutional responsibilities and limitations, the Army has turned the region into a killing field and jihad war zone.
"Nigerian Army and other deployed security personnel and their commanders in the East, particularly South-East, have been chasing shadows and watching the militarily protected Jihadists in Eastern forests, bushes, farmlands, and major road networks and their bypasses slaughtering over 300 and abducting 400 since Jan. 2022.
"To date, there are no records anywhere in the Army crimes statistics (if any), showing a single Jihadist Fulani Herdsman or number of Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen or other Jihadists that have been arrested and prosecuted or “gunned down in an exchange of gunfire” for slaughtering defenseless citizens of the South-East since January 2022, if not since 2016.
"A typical case in point was a recent account by a survivor of the Jihadist herdsmen abduction who chillingly disclosed how he, along with three abducted others, were abducted on 20th Oct 2022 along Abia State University, Uturu in Abia State and forced by their Jihadist Fulani herdsmen abductors to trek for eight days through bush paths in Abia, Anambra, Enugu and Igbo part of Delta states during which they saw dead bodies of abducted Igbo-Christians as they covered the four States.
“The blood of the eight defenseless citizens killed by Nigerian Military (Army and Navy) in Isuofia and Umuona in Aguata, Anambra State is still on their heads. The innocent spirits of the slain are also seeking justice. The Nigerian Army and the Navy had on 12th Nov 2022 opened fire and killed no fewer than eight innocent and defenseless citizens," Intersociety noted.
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