Most kidnapping incidents in the South East are carried out by bandits who cover the entire range of violent crimes, extort money from innocent citizens but pretend to have ties with the secessionists agitators, Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB and its military wing of Eastern Security Network, ESN, a research by experts from Nextier SPD has revealed.

The experts in an extensive research work also said that majority of those behind the insecurity in the South East have no commitment whatsoever to secession, rather their actions are all about profit from lucrative criminality.

Nextier SPD Policy in its weekly report said that though secessionist agitation exists in the South East, there are also gunmen attacks, banditry, group violence and kidnapping, adding that one group could carry out the entire set of activities.

To buttress this position, Nextier SPD noted that Fulani herder?s kidnappers are active in Enugu State, particularly the Enugu ? Nsukka road, alleging that on January 9, 2025, the Fulani herders kidnapped three soldiers and more than thirty other passengers on the same road, in addition to several incidents in the preceding months of 2024.

The report was authored by Dr Ben Nwosu, an associate consultant at Nextier, senior research fellow at the Institute for Development Studies, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus, and senior lecturer political science department, Nsukka campus and Dr Ndu Nwokolo, a managing partner at Nextier and honorary fellow at the School of Government at the University of Birmingham, UK.

Dr. Nwokolo is also a visiting research fellow at the Nathanson Centre on Transnational Human Rights, Crime, and Security at York University Canada.

In the report, titled, ?Between Secessionism and Banditry in South East Nigeria,? the experts contended that ?there are agitators who are committed to the course of exiting the country and working for it without engaging in criminal activities, there are criminal groups who find a convenient hiding within the secessionist struggle to engage in their activities.

?Most kidnapping incidents in the South East are carried out by bandits who cover the entire range of violent crimes, extort money from innocent citizens and have no commitment whatsoever to secession. To sum it all up, it?s about profit from lucrative criminality.?

They said that the common form of conflict which the South East region of Nigeria is associated with is secessionist agitation to restore the state of Biafra.

According to the report, ?the agitators are aggressively assertive about the demand and have the Eastern Security Network (ESN) as their armed wing. However, they refute allegations of being violent agitators because, according to them, the ESN is for repelling violent Fulani herders that attack communities in the region.

?The common thinking in the South East is that the Fulani herders are responsible for all the attacks in rural communities in the forms of kidnapping, destruction of farm crops and creation of a general atmosphere of insecurity.

?This thinking appears to create a misconception about the actual state of insecurity in the South East. The blanket categorisation of most violent conflicts in the South East as secessionist-driven or that all kidnappings are Fulani-led are inaccurate.

?Approaching the solution from the prism of secessionist agitation or limited focus on the main actors in the kidnapping enterprise leads to a wrong definition of the problem and its sources. Therefore, the solution toolkit aims at something different from the main challenge that needs to be resolved.

?In trying to solve the security problem of the South East, what government forces contend with most times in the region is banditry, which entails robbery, forceful extortion, kidnapping for ransom (KFR), murder, arson and other forms of menace to private properties.

?At the peak of violent conflicts in the South East around 2021, the phenomenon of unknown gunmen that operated mainly in the South East became a common one in Nigeria?s security lexicon.

?The unknown gunmen are sophisticated gun criminals who are capable of very rapid sting attacks, with precision and mostly with automatic assault weapons, which they usually use to inflict fatal attacks.

?They attacked and killed several men of the armed services, especially police officers and occasionally soldiers. They also torched institutions of government.

?This period also witnessed the establishment of the operational cells of groups that purport to be the Biafran agitators. These purported agitators virtually set up operational bases in rural communities for nefarious activities,? it said.

They quoted the Governor of Anambra State, Prof Charles Soludo, who said that hoodlums behind the attacks in the South East are criminals who have hijacked the Biafra struggle and hiding under the agitation to undertake lucrative criminality.

The governor said that the criminals engage in armed robbery, kidnapping and idolatry and justify their atrocities under the pretext of Biafra.

Continuing, Nextier SPD in the report said: ?Hence, the security challenge of the South East, properly defined, is banditry. The perpetrators merely pretend to have ties with the Biafra struggle. In this edition of Nextier SPD Policy Weekly, we explore the complex intersection of secessionism and banditry in the South East of Nigeria to lay the background for a proper understanding of the genre of insecurity for a more appropriate security response. ?

On the fusion of secessionism and banditry, the experts said that the incidence of attacks on rural communities and destruction of farmlands as well as rape and kidnapping by rogue pastoralists peaked around 2020.

They said, ?Both the governments and security agencies appeared overwhelmed and helpless. The Eastern Security Network was launched by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) with the vow to protect the South East from the marauding herdsmen.

?The crises of that moment created a desperate situation in which anything that appeared like a solution was acceptable. The government?s ineffectiveness and brazenness of the violent herdsmen made the problem worse. Therefore, IPOB?s ESN appeared messianic.

?However, their emergence and the prior use of force by the IPOB to enforce their order in the region created an atmosphere in which any person or group with arms could operate freely under the guise of the Biafran struggle.

?Therefore, like the rapid proliferation of killer toxic cells, armed gangs multiplied their cells and began to carry out banditry with impunity while bearing the cover of agitators.

?Note that before the proliferation of armed herders? attacks and kidnapping, dangerous criminal gangs had, from time to time, operated in different parts of the South East. For instance, the late Okwudili Ndiwe, aka Derico nwa mama, Chiejina, who is also deceased, and Jonathan Uzoigwe were young kingpins that terrorised Anambra State around the year 2000.

?These young men engaged in armed robbery as well as operated criminal gangs that robbed and brought returns to them. The same is true of one dreaded Abia kingpin, Mr Obioma Nwankwo alias Osisika nkwu.

?He partitioned Abia State among his men while assuming central control. They terrorised Abia with armed robbery and kidnapping for ransom. Indeed, when he was killed in 2010 in an ambush by the Military Task Force operating in Abia State at the time, thirteen kidnap victims were rescued from his den in the bush.

?From time to time, these forms of gangs exist in the South East due to poor security planning in the region. They hibernate when security improves and reappears under favourable conditions. Often, they avoid areas with strong self-help security arrangements like vigilantes and thrive in more permissible environments or other vulnerable states of the region.

?Therefore, when secessionist agitation cells started, they replicated it, adopted the insignia of Biafran struggles and exploited the atmosphere of tension to unleash mayhem on the citizens of the region.

?The point being made is that these are primarily bandits. Thus, there is both active Igbo participation in kidnappings in the South East and Fulani herders component. Indeed, whichever community where the bandits have a camp, there must be a local collaborator.

?An eye-witness account of a survivor of a kidnap revealed gory details of the reckless murder of those who could not meet the payment of ransom demands of the kidnapping gang of Igbo young men, with the operational base at a rural Urum community near Awka in Anambra State.

?According to the source, the kidnappers slaughter people and sell their vital organs while dumping the other parts in a well within their enclave. Painfully, they receive ransom payments in several millions for each abductee, carry heavy arms and operate with impunity.

?At the same time, law enforcement authorities are afraid to engage them because they are not confident in their firepower and, in most cases, do not have the technology to track the criminals.

?In addition to the Anambra experience, a pocket of abductions takes place inside urban communities in Enugu State. Small intra-city mini buses, disguised as commercial vehicles, are used to pick up victims.

?In two different instances, health workers who joined such buses to go home after work ended up in the kidnapper?s den (Interview 1, Personal Communication, January 6, 2025).

?The herder?s kidnappers are equally active in Enugu State, particularly the Enugu ? Nsukka road. On January 9, 2025, herders kidnapped three soldiers and more than thirty other passengers on the same road, in addition to several incidents in the preceding months of 2024.

?Hence, kidnapping by bandit herders has rendered the road a troubled axis despite being the easiest functional connection from Enugu through Nsukka to the northern part of the country.

?Secessionism, banditry, gunmen attacks and kidnapping are tangled in the South East because one may not easily isolate which of them has happened in every instance of a violent crime, especially as kidnappers are also violent bandits who, as convenience permits, lay claim to secessionist agitation.

?Therefore, when unknown gunmen attack and kill security personnel and engage in stealing or kidnapping, distinguishing them from any other agitator becomes difficult.

?Recent Joint Task Force Military Operation Udoka had discovered and destroyed camps belonging to such groups in Lilu and Enugwu Umuonyia towns in Anambra State, Ohafia in Abia state, as well as carried out rescue operations in Ajalli and Aguleri in Anambra State, Orlu in Imo State and Umuahia, Abia State capital and confirmed that the groups use these camps for kidnapping activities and extraction of ransom, yet they act as Biafran agitators.

?Two factors make these bandits operate freely in these rural communities. The first is that residents of such communities are at risk of death at the slightest suspicion of the report against the bandits. Second, they assume control of such communities and insist on being the ones to grant permissions for social events.

?Often, they insist that the host must not use formal security men. It was the refusal to conform with such order that seven persons, including police officers, were shot at Ihiala LGA of Anambra State on December 30, 2024. Third, the authorities do not respond to the security needs of the people.

?Therefore, they resign to their fate rather than confront the gang and be killed. Most importantly, an association of Biafra with the activity of any group easily makes the Igbo sentimental. The bandits understand this logic and combine it with threats to hamper intelligence gathering to prolong their survival,? it added.

In its recommendations, Nextier SPD Policy Weekly submitted: ?Based on the foregoing, the government at the federal and subnational levels should critically re-evaluate their engagement with insecurity in the South East by doing the following:

?Revisit their understanding and classification of security challenges in the South East to properly situate banditry, armed robbery, group violence and secession. By focusing a lot of firepower on secession, enough attention is not given to banditry, and this enables it to thrive.

?The government should embark on confidence-building measures and create safe spaces to support information gathering in order to engage more in intelligence-based operations.

?Reclassifying security operations as efforts to eliminate banditry and its associated kidnapping will eliminate any sentiment or sympathy that people may have for Biafra in the affected communities because they will now understand the bandits for what they are. Raising this consciousness is important to achieving the aim of community support.

?Communities should be encouraged to quietly release information on the local collaborators with bandits for arrests and furtherance of other security actions in the various camps.

?The dearth of modern equipment, arms, and protection for security forces should be addressed through enhanced procurement and the establishment of mechanisms for the proper audit of the security procurement budget.?

It advised the Nigerian government to revisit its understanding of and classification of security challenges in the South East and to embark on confidence-building measures and create safe spaces to support information gathering in order to engage more in intelligence-based operations.

It further stated that there is a need to reclassify banditry and its associated kidnapping for clarity of purpose, a need to encourage cooperation with communities towards the release of information on the local collaborators with bandits for arrests and furtherance of other security actions.

?It is important to address the shortage of modern equipment, arms, and protection for security forces,? it added. (Vanguard)

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