Leading Civil Rights Advocacy Group,Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has expressed consternation that the governors of the South Eastern States have failed to take concrete, workable, and law-based actions to stem the tide of heightened levels of killings just as the Rights group has advocated the disbandment of the notorious Ebubeagu security network in Ebonyi and Imo State and their replacement with armed vigilante set up by the people for the people and not armed gang of the governors.
HURIWA has also condemned the recent upsurge in the dastardly execution by unidentified armed nonstate actors of members of the Armed security forces doing their lawful duties in the South East of Nigeria just as the Rights group accused the armed security forces of lacking in actionable intelligence because of certain actions of some rogue operatives of the security agencies who have created a bad image of the armed forces as enemies of the people and therefore are cut off from receiving actionable human intelligence to aide the fight against the destruction of lives and property of the citizens and strategic national security assets.
"How come that both the police and the Army in Abuja and the police commands in the South East of Nigeria have constantly made outlandish claims of arresting armed nonstate actors responsible for the heightened levels of killings in the South East but the more these media propaganda are circulated the more worst and much more sophisticated attacks occur and the more successful the armed attackers are becoming? This can only mean one thing- the armed security forces are actually not catching the right persons executing the attacks because if the real culprits are being arrested, then by now the armed forces would have reduced the levels of attacks and the culprits would have been successfully prosecuted for their crimes against humanity. Why is President Muhammadu Buhari not concerned about the widespread suspicion that the chief sponsor of some of the deadliest attacks stays somewhere in the Eastern European nation of Finland?
"Can't President Muhammadu Buhari take diplomatic action to protect Igbos from being systematically killed by agents living in the South East allegedly armed by someone staying in Europe? If President Muhammadu Buhari hasn't done so, what have the governors of South East States done in the light of the allegations of involvement of a Nigerian withdrawal citizenship in Finland in the killings going on in South East of Nigeria?
HURIWA is saddened that for virtually two years now, it has constantly proffered practicable panacea to the increasing state of insecurity and instability in the South-East of Nigeria but it is regrettable that the Governors are not in any way committed towards the eradication of the sources and sponsors of the insecurity.
HURIWA cited the example of an All Progressives Grand Alliance supporter in Ebonyi State, Amobi Ujar, who was on Saturday allegedly beaten to a pulp by members of the state’s security outfit, Ebubeagu.
The Rights group quoting sources said the victim, Ujar, allegedly got a call from a supposed Ebubeagu informant and was lured to the Why Worry area of Amaehara Village, in the Afikpo North Local Government Area of the state where he was allegedly beaten to a coma by operatives of the outfit.
HURIWA also recalled with consternation the alleged involvement of Ebubeagu Vigilantes in the murder of over a dozen youths in Orlu last year who were reportedly returning from a traditional wedding just as the State Government confirmed that the Department of State Services and Ebubeagu were involved in an operation in which those youths were killed.
HURIWA said: "It is clear that the South East governors got it wrong when some of them decided to float armed vigilantes but rather than allow those statutory vigilantes to work for the collective security interests of the people of their States, especially in Ebonyi and Imo States, these governors have hijacked the Ebubeagu Security network and are deploying them as killer squads to target political opponents for elimination".
"In Ebonyi State alone, the Ebubeagu has been fingered in over two dozen cases of suspected assassinations but yet the state government has not prosecuted any of these killers being paid by the government from taxpayers' funds. The South East governors should ask their counterparts in the South West how come they successfully floated the Amotekun security network and there is hardly any case of harassment or attacks targeting the good people of those states in the South West. The SouthEast governors should set up people's oriented armed vigilantes to work to protect the people of their States and not become public executioners of perceived political opponents of the governors. The governors need to stop acting like economic saboteurs who hate their region by immediately introducing regional-wide measures to preempt these attackers and go after the actual people carrying out the bloody killings and their sponsors wherever they may be in the world."
