unceasing attacks in Southeast, whose plot, to what end

 

The South East has recently become the new venue for surprising violent attacks and has witnessed a few cases of insecurity, which has left mouths agape and also fixed a question mark on the hitherto claims of safety in the region.

From Ebonyi to Abia, Anambra to Imo, there has been one form of bloodletting or the other. In Ebonyi, invading armed men entered a community and killed innocent and defenceless persons, including women and children, in the most gruesome manner anyone could imagine.

In Abia, the same security problems have persisted with pockets of killings, mixed with robbery and attacks on security agents and their facilities.

The attacks in Imo and Anambra States, which only happened days back, can be described as the most brazen of the security breaches.

In Anambra, an unknown number of gunmen invaded the venue of a youth summit in Isuofia in Aguata LGA, where the former Central Bank Governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, who is also a governorship aspirant of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) was already speaking to over a thousand youths and opened fire, killing three policemen.

Before then, there have been cases of attacks and killing of security operatives in the state as well as attacks on police stations.

In Imo, the mother of all attacks was masterminded by yet to be identified gunmen, who stormed the custodial centre of the Nigerian Correctional Services in Owerri and engaged trained operatives in a shooting match, overpowered men on duty and forced open the prison, asking all the inmates to ‘go home, Christ has risen for your sake’.

A bit of comic relief you may say, but over 1800 convicted criminals were let loose that day.

The recent wave of attacks has exposed the apparent threat that a yet to be identified group have declared war on the zone, either to make a point or to disrupt the peace in the zone for unknown reasons.

The question, however, has remained who is responsible, to what end are these attacks masterminded?

In Ebonyi, fingers pointed to Fulani herdsmen for the gruesome murder of indigenes of a community in the state, Miyetti Allah,  learnt did not disappoint at all, as it quickly owned up to the killings, describing it as a reprisal for an earlier attack on them by the indigenes of the community.

The attacks in Anambra and Imo, however, were suspected to have been masterminded by the security arm of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), known as the Eastern Security Network (ESN), with speculations that it may not be unconnected to the usual verbose and boastful broadcasts of its leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.

The group and its leader has, however, denied the claims, saying that the non-violent stand of the group has not changed. The publicity secretary of the group, Mr Emma Powerful had in a statement said the group was formed on the principles of peace and would not compromise or attack government facilities.

Powerful’s statement had read, “The attention of IPOB has been drawn to the fallacious and fabricated reports that it is involved in the attack of prison and police headquarters in Imo. IPOB and Eastern Security Network (ESN) are known groups, not unknown gunmen. ESN is in the bush chasing terrorists and has no business with the said attacks. We were not involved in the attack in Owerri and the recent attack on Onitsha-Owerri road at Ukwuorji junction. It is not our mandate to attack security personnel or prison facilities.”

Despite these denials, the immediate past Inspector-General of Police, Adamu Abubakar had insisted that the attack on the Owerri custodial centre was carried out by ESN, while also promising to deal with them.

There have, however, been a series of attacks on the former IGP and blame on the ESN. Many wondered how Adamu could have come up with such allegations when investigations were yet to commence.

A public affairs commentator, Barr Innocent Adu who spoke in a radio programme in Awka insisted that it was unwise for the former IGP to conclude even before he had commenced investigation. Adu said, “Is it because they are Igbos that the IGP found it so easy to accuse them? It has been days since the Ebonyi community was attacked by people said to be herdsmen, so, did the IGP accuse the herdsmen? The answer is no. They said they needed to investigate before concluding. So, why can’t the IGP investigate the Owerri incident before concluding?

To further compound this, IPOB’s sister organization in the secessionist bid, Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), has absolved IPOB of the attack, rather saying that the attack was coming from outside to portray the zone as a battlefield. In a press release made available to  in Awka, the leader of MASSOB, Mr Uchenna Madu accused the federal government of being responsible for the attacks in Igboland.

The group said it found this out through its intelligence arm and that the aim was to portray the South-east and the secessionists as terrorists or turning violent.

Part of Madu’s release read: “MASSOB condemns the terrorist attack against Chukwuma Soludo at Isuofia, we equally condemned the unwarranted killings of Ebonyi State indigenous citizens by Fulani terrorist herdsmen, MASSOB condemned in totality, the breaking of Owerri prison by the so-called unknown gunmen. 

Through the MASSOB intelligence Agency, we found out that all these attacks are being sponsored and executed by the federal government of Nigeria through their protected militiamen called bandits and unknown gunmen. Their primary aim is to discredit the non-violent pro-Biafra freedom fighters like MASSOB and IPOB. They want to create an erroneous impression that pro-Biafra agitators have turned violent and militant.”

The group wondered that “Nigeria military cantonment, Obinze Owerri is seven minutes drive to the scenes of the crime, Imo State MOPOL base is three minutes drive to the scenes of the crime but no resistance came from pro-Biafra agencies.

The terrorist attacks in Owerri are part of the ongoing destructive measures by the President Muhammadu Buhari led administration to discredit and blackmail the pro Biafra organizations to create an erroneous impression that Biafrans are waging war against Nigeria,” Madu had said.

As the debate on who could be responsible for the series of attacks  ontinue, the fear in the region now is, what location will the next attack be? Who would be the victims?

The security situation in the zone has deteriorated such that the police and other security agencies which have the mandate of protecting the people can no longer offer such service, especially as it is a target of the attack itself.

In Anambra State,  gathered that there is a new directive banning policemen from wearing their uniforms on the streets. This, it was gathered is a measure to keep policemen away from attackers.

Also in Anambra, the state Police Command and their Nigeria Correctional Services (NCS) counterpart have blocked roads passing through the state police headquarters and the custodial centre in the state, causing untold hardship on motorists and other road users.

The blockade is to forestall attacks on the facility, as stern-looking policemen stood guard, ordering motorists and passers-by to alternative routes. The Public Relations Officer of the Anambra State Command of the NCS, Mr Francis Ekezie said it was part of the plan to forestall attacks, saying that other measures that cannot be made public have also been taken by the NCS.

“You should know that before you see the physical manifestation of security measures like barricades of target points, other measures which are not always for the consumption of the public have been put in place. All the security agencies are on the ground at points you may not easily decipher. Intelligence gathering and strategies are already on the ground. We are leaving no stone unturned to avert external aggression,” Ekezie said.

The Public Relations Officer of Anambra State Police Command, DSP Toochukwu Ikenga on the other hand said the barricades erected by the command was a way of checkmating attacks. “We just have to ask the people to bear with us for now, but these things are very necessary. You know also that that barricade did not start today, just that we are reinforcing it because of recent events.”

Following the appointment of a new IGP, Usman Alkali Baba, the people of the southeast are waiting to see what could be done to restore the known peace in the zone.

 

News : Imo prison break Osinbajo hints on FG’s plan to rejig security architecture

 

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has assured that the Federal Government would strengthen security at correctional centres across the country.

Osinbajo gave the assurance while addressing newsmen at the Owerri Custodial Centre, Imo, on Tuesday after inspecting the facility to ascertain the extent of damage by hoodlums who attacked the centre on Monday, April 5, 2021.

The vice president who condemned the attacks on the correctional centre and the Police Headquarters in Owerri said the security architecture of the country would be rejigged.

He further assured that all those responsible for the attacks would be uncovered and made to face the full wrath of the law.

According to him, the attacks were against the Nigerian people and her government, adding that it must not be condoned.

“Perpetrators of this act will definitely be brought to book. They must not go free. They are cowards and will be discovered and duly prosecuted, he said.

“We will be rejigging the security architecture of the country and strengthening security at correctional centres nationwide,” he said.

Osinbajo, however, urged security agencies not to relent in the fight against banditry, irrespective of the challenges involved.

1,800 Prisoners Are Broken Out of Jail in Nigeria

 

Gunmen bearing machine guns and grenades stormed a prison in a restive part of southeast Nigeria many refer to as Biafra, letting loose any inmate who wanted out.

 The Nigerian authorities say they are searching for about 1,800 inmates who escaped from a prison aided by heavily armed gunmen in the southeastern corner of the country, where anti-government separatists have long been active.

The authorities laid blame for the jailbreak on a rebel group that promotes the decades-old cause of secession for Nigeria’s southeastern corner, popularly known as Biafra.

“All is not well in the southeast,” said Emeka Umeagbalasi, a criminologist at the International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law in Nigeria, a good-governance advocacy group.

The escapes came as security has been declining in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, where kidnapping has become rife and the army has been deployed to respond to security threats, including terrorism and banditry, in almost every state.

Prison officials said that early on Monday morning, men armed with high-powered weapons including machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades arrived at a prison in Owerri, in southeastern Imo State. They exchanged fire with security personnel, according to prison officials, and then used explosives to blast their way into the prison yard.

One inmate died in the stampede that followed, officials said, and one policeman sustained a minor bullet wound to the shoulder. Officers repelled an attack on the armory at the prison, according to Frank Mba, a police spokesman.

Nigeria’s security services have launched a search operation to recapture the inmates, whose number was put at 1,844. It is not yet known how many of them were convicts, and how many were just awaiting trial. Justice is often slow in Nigeria, with people spending years in jail before their cases are heard.

“I am worried that some criminals were set free,” said Kelechi Njoku, a hotelier and resident of Owerri whose hotel is around five miles from the prison. “But not all of them are criminals. There are thousands awaiting trials.”

A few prisoners were trickling back into custody, accompanied by their relatives or lawyers, Francis Enobore, a spokesman for the prison system in Nigeria, said in a WhatsApp exchange. Thirty-five inmates refused to leave when the jailbreak happened, he said.

The police said that the attackers were members of the Indigenous People of Biafra, a secessionist group that has been banned in Nigeria since 2017 and is designated as a “militant terrorist organization” by the government.

But a spokesman for the Indigenous People of Biafra denied that the group — or its paramilitary wing, the Eastern Security Network — were involved.

“E.S.N. is in the bush chasing terrorists and have no business with the said attacks,” the spokesman, Emma Powerful, said in a statement. “It is not our mandate to attack security personnel or prison facilities.”

 

Escaped inmates who return voluntarily will not be charged with unlawful escape, the minister of interior, Rauf Aregbesola, said on a visit to the prison. Prison officials said in a statement that they were “appealing to the good citizens of Imo State and indeed Nigerians to volunteer useful intelligence that will facilitate the recovery effort.”

They said all officers at other prisons should “remain vigilant at this trying moment in our history,” suggesting concern about further prison breaks.

Visiting the prison on Tuesday, Nigeria’s inspector-general of police, Mohammed Adamu, took a belligerent tone, instructing his officers to “never spare” bandits, in an apparent reference to the gunmen who attacked the prison.

“Deal with them ruthlessly,” local journalists reported Mr. Adamu as saying. “Unleash your full arsenal on them. The law is behind you.”

But while he was visiting Owerri, Mr. Adamu was fired as police chief by the Nigerian president, Muhammadu Buhari. It was a month before his tenure was set to end, and the reasons for the dismissal were unclear.

It has been 51 years since the end of the Nigerian civil war in which people of the eastern region broke away from the rest of the country. Biafra, the state they created, came to an end when its leaders surrendered after 30 months of fighting.

But the Biafran dream is alive and well.

It is nurtured by Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, a populist figure who peddles conspiracy theories — including one that the Nigerian president died and was replaced by a body double. Nevertheless, Mr. Kanu has managed to amass a huge following.

Biafra’s enduring popularity — and the group’s — is attributable in part to the rampant police abuses that a generation of Nigerians rose up against last fall, under the banner of the #EndSARS movement.

Young people in southeastern states have for years complained of arbitrary arrests, torture and killings at the hands of the security forces, who are usually drawn from other regions of Nigeria. Convinced that Biafra should be a separate country, many residents of the southeast say the heavy military presence in the region is reminiscent of an occupying foreign army.

The prison break is part of a pattern of attacks on national security forces. Six police stations were razed and 10 police officers killed in the southeast by gunmen over two weeks starting late February, according to local media reports.

“With the way things are going, in two years’ time Nigeria may be able to play host to 30 to 40 insurgency groups, because government is pushing the people to the wall,” said Mr. Umeagbalasi, the criminologist.

People in zamfara residents rejoice over removal of police IG, Adamu by Buhari

 

There have been harvests of joy and jubilations in Zamfara State over the replacement of the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu.

Residents who spoke to  said they are relieved that the IG was replaced, as he allegedly did nothing to salvage the state from terror attacks despite being a security chief.

Aminu Usman a resident said the security situation was worse under Adamu, stressing that they had watched with keen interest to see how the nation’s police boss would end.

“In fact we were not happy with President Mohammad Buhari because of the security lapses in the country because he did not put a capable hand there to handle the security issue in the country as a whole” he added.

“If the IG fails in his constitutional responsibility of protecting the entire country, nobody would place any blame on the nation’s police boss but all blame must go to Buhari because he has failed the country by putting a wrong person in that sensitive position.

He alleged that nobody wants to serve the country with a sincere heart because of the pursuit of riches, describing the situation as a Nigerian factor.

He alleged that President Buhari is too weak to handle Nigeria because he was not behaving like a soldier, stressing that the administration has witnessed more killings than any government in this country.

“Quote me, during the tenures of Obasanjo, Babangida, Abdulsalami and Abacha Nigeria did not witness such bloodshed like the tenure of Buhari yet all of them were soldiers”

“Then why should Buhari’s tenure be different. If I were Buhari, I swear I would have taken the path of honour and resigned before Nigerians would force me out of the system because I am not capable to lead a country that has over 180 million people.

“It is in Buhari’s tenure that Nigeria wants to disintegrate. The Igbo’s have since made up their minds to go, now the Yoruba’s, Middle Belt and the South-South zones are seriously agitating to disintegrate from one single entity called Nigeria.

“It must be said that Buhari is not handling this country constitutionally as it supposed to be, there have been cries of marginalization everywhere in the country. Even the Hausa people are crying very seriously that most of the positions always go to the Northwest zone”

“Definitely we cannot continue like this otherwise Nigeria would go into a very serious civil war that can claim millions of lives because it may not be like the Biafran war that every segment of Nigeria joined forces and fought the Igbo’s. This time the pattern of the war will be so different”

He said that many people have been crying for restructuring of the country, saying that restructuring would never be the solution to the problems of Nigeria,

”Even if Buhari likes let him restructure the country one hundred times a day but some regions would stand up and agitate that they are being marginalized”.

Buhari govt planning to kill Igbo agitators – Biafra group

 

The Biafra Nations League, BNL, says the just sacked Inspector General of Police, IGP, Mohammed Adamu has exposed the intention of the Federal Government for Biafran agitators.

BNL said the order by Adamu that police officers use maximum force against members of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has exposed a plot by the Federal Government to carry out extra-judicial killings of Biafra agitators.

Adamu had given the order following the attacks on Police headquarters and Correction facilities in Owerri, Imo State.

But the Deputy National Leader of BNL, Ebuta Akor Takon, who did not welcome the order, condemned the activities of the gunmen, stressing that his group is currently investigating their motives.

Takon in a statement sent to  said, “since the IPOB has denied involvement, and no group has claimed responsibility for the attacks on uniformed men in the South East, Cross River and Akwa Ibom State it means that the federal government is sponsoring the attacks to label all Biafrans as terrorist”.

The group warned that the federal government “must not play with the lives of the people of the old Eastern Nigeria.”

BNL wondered why security operatives could not “make any arrest during the attack to ascertain which group is behind it.

The group further warned the Federal government not to invite another trouble by arresting separatists.

Again gunmen burn down Police Station in Imo State, free detainees

 

Gunmen on Tuesday attacked another police station in Imo State, freed suspects in detention and razed it down.

This happened barely 24 hours after the Imo State Correctional Centre and the State Police Headquarters were attacked on Monday with many inmates set free.

Tuesday’s incident happened a few hours after Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and outgoing Inspector General of Police (IGP), Muhammed Adamu left the State.

The VP, IGP and the Minister of Interior Rauf Aregbesola, were in the state to inspect the level of damage on the burnt security facilities.

The Gunmen attacked and burnt Ehime Mbano Local Government Area Divisional Police Headquarters on Tuesday.

Without any form of investigation, the outgoing IGP Adamu had yesterday accused members of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, and the Eastern Security Network, ESN, of carrying out the attacks.

This was after the IPOB in a statement by its spokesman, Emma Powerful, denied any involvement in the dastardly act.

The gunmen were said to have operated without any resistance from Security agencies on Tuesday.

IPOB : There’ll never be Biafra again, says Buhari’s aide, Onochie

 

Lauretta Onochie, Senior Special Assistant on Social Media to the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), says there will never be a Republic of Biafra again.

She stated this on Monday following Imo attacks which the police have accused members of the Indigenous People of Biafra of being the masterminds.

Onochie, who is from Southern Nigeria, tweeted a video showing the then Head of State, Yakubu Gowon, receiving the then Biafran Vice President, Major General Philip Effiong, who facilitated the surrender of the Biafran State to Nigeria in 1970. Effiong had assumed leadership of the secessionist state after the Biafran leader, Colonel Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, fled to Ivory Coast in the heat of the civil war.

“The very day nails were put in the coffin of Biafra. There’ll never be Biafra again, Never!” the President’s aide captioned the video.

Dissatisfaction over the Nigerian State and the quest for sovereignty had led Ojukwu to declare the exit of the Republic of Biafra from Nigeria in May 1967. The Biafran territory essentially comprised the South-East region of Nigeria.

The declaration led to a civil war that lasted two and half years as the Nigerian State under Gowon battled to unify the soul of the country using state powers and military might.

The war ended in January 1970 with the South-East region back in Nigeria but the civil war left a ghoulish imprint on the Nigerian history with squalid tales of deaths, blood, hunger, horror, sorrow and more deaths.

However, decades later, secessionist agitations resurfaced in the South-East. The agitation, this time, is being championed by the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu.

The Buhari regime had in September 2017 outlawed IPOB and declared that the activities of the group constituted an act of terrorism and illegality.

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Before then, Kanu was arrested and jailed but was later released from the Kuje Prison in Abuja after meeting bail conditions. The IPOB leader later fled the country and has been operating from overseas.

Of late, IPOB formed the Eastern Security Network but the security outfit has no backing of the governors of the South-East. It has, therefore, been at loggerheads with state-authorised security agencies like the police and the army.

 earlier reported that the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, on Monday, accused IPOB’s ESN operatives of being the masterminds of attacks on the Imo State Police Command headquarters and the Owerri Correctional Prison, which led to the release of over 1,800 inmates and the destruction of scores of vehicles and state assets.