The rising tide of series of blood -letting killings of hundreds of innocent and defenceless citizens, vis-a-vis that of security operatives in the South East geo-political zone of the country must be frontally stemmed to save the country from degenerating into a state of anarchy. The fact that the scary scenario has dovetailed into spurious blame-game between members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) while precious lives are being lost virtually on a daily basis should inform the Federal Government to rise up now before it becomes too late in the day.

Going by the media reports of the mindless murders, prevention will certainly be safer and better than cure. For instance, on September 19, 2023 the media was literally awash with the ambush of two trucks carrying some security operatives that were all killed and the vehicles set ablaze! The horrifying incident reportedly took place in Umualimaku, in Ehime Mbano Local Government Area of Imo State.

The number of casualties remains unknown. The victims were members of the Search and Flush Team – a combined security outfit made up of soldiers, policemen and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) personnel. As the video clips of the bizarre mayhem went viral on social media, they revealed that the victims ‘corpses were burnt to ashes! Horrible and despicable, we must admit. These inhuman acts should not be condoned and allowed to escalate at all in any sane society.

But there might be more to the conscienceless killings that meet the ordinary eye. Before this incident, in March this year a convoy of US Embassy staffers was attacked by gunmen along a major road in Ogbaru Local Government Area in Anambra State, killing two of its local workers and two policemen. “The hoodlums murdered two of the Police Mobile Force operatives and two staff of the Consulate, and set their bodies ablaze and their vehicles,” said Tochukwu Ikenga, a police spokesman in Anambra.

A joint team of security forces was deployed to the scene but arrived only after the assailants escaped with two other police officers and one of the drivers, Ikenga added. He said no US citizen was on the trip. While the Federal Government keeps laying the full blame of such killings of security operatives at the doorstep of the separatist IPOB group, it has serially denied it. In fact, it states that the operatives are the infamous ‘unknown gunmen’.

According to IPOB: “The Nigerian government and its compromised security agencies had made the 2022 Christmas season a season of human harvest of killings and displacement of peaceful Igbo communities.” It furthermore claimed that: “They targeted Igbo youths who came for Christmas for massacre. Some security agencies went to a bar in Anambra State and murdered about 50 youths who were celebrating the New Year in their community.”

The pictures painted by the horrible incident should normally belong to the realm of some midnight horror movies. But they are not. Indeed, they are as real as the sunrise in the morning. It would be recalled that back in January of 2022 a report entitled: “Massacre in Eastern Nigeria: Special Investigative Report” claimed that some 1,400 persons were killed by security operatives with about 1,000 houses burnt in 100 Igbo communities within 14 months!

That report was published by the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) and signed by the Chairman Board of Trustees, Chief Emeka Uneag- balasi, and the Head of Campaign and Publicity, Chidinma Udogbunam, amongst other top members of the group. Yet, about a year before the report the Country Director at Amnesty International (AI), Osai Ojigha, stated with emphasis that: “The evidence gathered by Amnesty International paints a damning picture of ruthless, excessive forces in Imo, Anambra and Abia states.”

That report came out of the investigations carried out by AI between January and June of 2021. Precisely, AI accused security forces of engaging in excessive use of force, physi- cal abuse, secret detentions, extortion, burning of houses, theft and extra-judicial execution of suspects. In fact, AI documented 52 incidents of unlawful killings and 62 cases of arbitrary arrest, ill-treatment and torture.

But that was not all there was to the allegations of the use of might-is-right jungle mentality to ride roughshod on the sanctity of human life. In all of this, we all are at the receiving end of the perpetration of injustice against fellow human beings. The onus therefore, rests on the Federal Government to institute a committee of concerned Nigerians, includ- ing elders, the traditional institution, members of both IPOB and top security operatives.

They should meet at a round table; critically and objectively assess the grievous situation at hand to seek sustainable solutions to the killing spree. Doing so will bring about internal security, peace, and economic prosperity. A stitch in time, as they say, will save nine.

Update news