Okonkwo Samuel
Lilu, Orsumoghu, Azia, Isekke, Ukpor are in serious trouble. It is very unfortunate. The experience is not worth having for a second time. We are in serious trouble in Anambra South.”
Residents of the area corroborated the account of grave situation given above; saying more than this still goes on in the area with people trying by all means to avoid that route. However, opinions are divided among stakeholders and residents of the region on the lingering attacks and killings, with blames being heaped mainly on the governors and security operatives.
Security operatives not doing enough to protect us— Community leader laments
On the increasing wave of attacks in Ihiala axis, a community leader in Okija, Chief Sebastian Okonkwo argued that security operatives were not doing enough to protect the people from the deadly attacks.
Speaking with South-East Voice, Okonkwo said Nigerian security operatives have been adopting ad hoc approach in dealing with the attacks. He decried a situation where the entire stretch of Isseke-Ukpor road has remained without the presence of security operatives since the resurgence of the gunmen.
“If there is any area where there should be checkpoints after every kilometer, it is the Isseke–Ukpor road which has become a haven for the gunmen. But rather, they stationed themselves at Ihiala and Azia junctions along the Onitsha–Owerri road, causing multiple accidents there always,” Okonkwo said.
While Okonkwo is worried about the insecurity along the Isseke–Ukpor road, there is a new development in parts of Anambra, which is the forceful acquisition of pump action guns procured by various communities for their vigilante service by agents of unknown gunmen. It was gathered that some youths, who are not from the villages in some communities in Ihiala Local Government Area, have been going round and forcing village chairmen to surrender all the guns in their possession and those who resisted were threatened with instant killing of their entire families.
Gunmen now order us to surrender Vigilantes’ pump action guns, seize them for their evil activities—Community laments
According to one of the chairmen, this has put the villages in serious danger as they could no longer defend themselves. He said that many communities in the local government area were affected by the development, which explains why the various communities could no longer resist the invasion of the gunmen in the area.
The chairman said: “When they brought an unsigned letter demanding that we surrender all guns in our possession, we thought it was a joke, but the next thing we saw was fierce-looking heavily armed youths who stormed my house and demanded for the guns. They were strange faces and they took the guns we purchased for our vigilante outfit.
“What surprised me was that they knew the number of guns we have, which is an indication that someone from our community was working with them. We have tried to identify who the saboteur could be without success. As it stands, we are at their mercy. They can come into any community and operate without any resistance.”
In the meantime, the Ukpor–Orsumoghu–Isseke road has become a no-go area. The only security checkpoint along that road is at Amichi-Nnewi junction. Before the unknown gunmen took over that axis, the Isseke–Orsumoghu–Awka Etiti road used to be the alternative road from Imo State to Onitsha, but now, the road has been abandoned and many people living along the road have become refugees in safer neighbouring communities.
South-East Voice also found out that for anybody to organise any ceremony, including burials, weddings and chieftaincy installation, in Lilu, Mbosi, Azia, Orsumoghu and even Isseke, the person has to pay a certain amount to the agents of the unknown gunmen. Once the money is paid, the person is free to hold his ceremony without any disturbance.
It was also gathered that additional payment is made if those attending the ceremony would use the dreaded Isseke–Orsumoghu–Ukpor road, in which case there won’t be any operation along that road on the day of the event.
According to our investigation, one of the conditions for granting such permission is that the organiser of the event must not invite the police to the ceremony, otherwise the person would risk attack of the unknown gunmen during the ceremony.
“The situation has degenerated to the level that we pay to survive in this part of the state and we don’t even know the people we pay to,” the community leader said.
But in the opinion of Abia Onyike, it is difficult to blame any group for the increase in violent attacks and killings in the South- East, saying he believes it is the result of failure of government in the region.
“But my own opinion is that these ugly developments only point to the failure of government in the South- East. The origins of the insecurity can be traced to September, 2017 when the South-East governors and then Ohanaeze President colluded with the Federal authorities to conduct Operation Python Dance in the South-East. It was followed by the proscription of IPOB. Many Igbo youths in Aba were dehumanized and drowned in the ponds. The unintelligent Igbo leaders felt they were doing very well. And recently, we have seen how Ebubeagu had been turned into an instrument of harassment and intimidation of the political opponents of the APC governors in Ebonyi and Imo states. Government cannot be sponsoring violence and declaring war on the civil population and expect peace to reign.
“As a sociologist and journalist, I am well read to understand the social origins of civil disobedience and militant resistance. But the problem of the present crop of governors in Igbo land is that they are not patriotic. Secondly, they are not well tutored in politics. Look at how the South-West governors have managed Amotekun to ward off attacks by Fulani herdsmen. But here, our governors have lost touch with the people who elected them. That is why they can afford to behave like the enemies of the people. To me, the only governors I respect in Igboland are Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi and the incoming Governor of Anambra, Prof. Charles Soludo. These are people who can hold genuine dialogue with the people. Okezie Ikpeazu is not a bully like Umahi and Uzodinma but his developmental trajectory is scandalous and backward. Obiano is equally a gentleman.
“The worst ruler is the one who thinks he can use force to silence the people. Sometimes it can boomerang and that is why it would appear that the South-East governors have lost touch with their responsibilities in civil governance. In their brazen pursuit of self aggrandizement, they are alienated from the people. They have destroyed the civil service, some of them owe backlog of salaries and gratuities and the local government system has been castrated by them because of greed and avarice. It is like a declaration of war on the people. The things which bound society together have been devastated by their tyrannical leadership. That is why they have lost legitimacy. What we see as violent crimes are ugly incidents which show that these leaders are no more in charge. It is a shame”, Onyike lamented.
In their reaction, a group of elite Igbo professionals, Concerned Igbo Stakeholders Forum, CISF, expressed worry over the situation, warning that the situation in the South-East could turn to what is happening in the North-East.
The leader of the group, Chukwuma Okenwa said: “We are disquieted with the resurgence in frequent attacks, killings, arson and kidnappings in Igbo land. This is gradually creating a Southern version of the North-East narrative of terror and bloodshed. We are aware that there are security challenges across all the regions of the country, but what is currently happening in the South-East is a replica of what the North-East has become.
“What makes the case of the South-East more worrisome is that we do not have the luxury of space enough to either accommodate the terrorists or for the safe engagement of the miscreants by the armed forces. We know what happened when the Army launched an air strike in Orlu, allegedly against terrorists and that claimed the lives of innocent indigenes. Thus the enemy can either live within the people or come into the region whenever they wish to strike. This makes the situation potentially a more complex one than the North-East and all stakeholders must rise to the challenge.
“It is also important to note that a good number of those attacks seem to have happened when roads are free – either during sit-at-home or in the case of the ‘no movement order’ in the recent Local Government Area elections in Enugu State. Areas of the region with less vehicular movements seem to be more vulnerable and that offers an insight into adopting a clearer strategy by the security agencies and the indigenes.
“How these attacks happen frequently without adequate security intelligence to forecast it, contain it or even uncover the details thereafter, makes a case for either a compromise or a collapse of security intelligence in the region.
“There is a need to integrate the indigenes and all stakeholders into the intelligence and security awareness architecture in the region. The issue of strategic communication should also be deployed to help build confidence in the people of the region, and not fear which favours the enterprise of the hoodlums.”
Prominent Igbo leader and politician, Chief Chekwas Okorie described the menace of unknown gunmen as very shameful, adding that it is a clear indication of failure of governance in the region.
Okorie said that the state governments in the region can resolve the problem with the huge security allocations they receive every month by utilising the fund in the training and equipment of vigilante groups in every community, noting that the so called unknown gunmen occupy forests in communities in the region which the vigilantes, if well motivated, could join forces with the federal security agencies to identify them and end the ugly situation.
He also said that it is extremely difficult to exonerate the activities of IPOB/ESN from the mayhem because of their flagrant methods of operation, insisting however, that another solution is provision of good governance that could provide jobs for the restive youths.
His words: “It is very disturbing and it is a clear indication of failure of governance in the South- East. For a long time, people had expected the governors in the South- East, which is almost the smallest geographical location compared to other zones in Nigeria, to end this. I don’t see how complicated and difficult it is for the governors to work together and tackle the issue of insecurity in the zone using the various advantages they have as governors.
“You see, these are our children who live among us, some of them hide away in the forests and this is where the local vigilante security outfits coordinated by the states can flush them out. They have gone to the extent of bloodletting for no justifiable reason. They have carried cultism from the universities into the society. Innocent businessmen are targeted and shot for no reason and it is so painful.”
On the linking of IPOB/ESN to the orgy of violence in the region, Okorie said: “Well, it is such a difficult thing to either exonerate IPOB
