South –East: RULAAC accuses FG, security agencies of gross human right abuses

Stanley Ihedigbo

Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC), has accused the President Bola Tinubu –led federal government of gross human rights violation aided by the activities of the security agencies in South East region.

This was contained in a detailed statement made available to The Mirror, signed by Executive Director, RULAAC, Comrade Okechukwu Nwanguma, titled:” Documenting insecurity and human rights violation in the South-East”.

Okechukwu stated that insecurity and human rights violation in the South-East are closely and clearly linked.

“Security and law enforcement agencies, in the context of combating insecurity, are committing egregious human rights violations, complicating the already precarious situation.

“In the pretext of searching for IPOB members ‘terrorism suspects’ in communities, security agents invade the communities, shooting indiscriminately, in some cases,  raping women, looting, vandalizing and burning down houses linked to or associated with the suspects. Sometimes, influential politicians and community leaders use security agents to settle personal scores or to advance political ambitions.

“When criminals attack police installations or kill security agents, operatives embark on reprisal attacks, indiscriminately arresting, parading and/or killing innocent people. Usually, the criminals who carried out the attacks would have escaped from the scene and innocent people become soft targets used by security forces to demonstrate their effectiveness in combating insecurity,” he lamented.

He further said that in the South-East region, insecurity is wrong headedly narrowed down to IPOB/ESN (ignoring other drivers and forms of insecurity including pre-existing forms of insecurity (predating the IPOB phenomenon).

“Young people in the South-East are endangered by the law enforcement attitude and method that deems and treats everyone as IPOB or ESN members. Thousands have been arbitrarily arrested, detained, tortured and disappeared. Extortion of families of some of the victims is a major source of corrupt self-enrichment by the Commanders of the units involved in these predatory operations.

“Some communities in Imo State have become ghost communities with only criminal gangs holding sway. Young people have been forced to flee for fear of being arrested, labeled IPOB or ESN members and killed.

“Criminal gangs are also targeting community members perceived as giving information about their activities to security agencies. Many of such targets can no longer visit their communities.  Some have heard their family houses raised down.  Many community members have abandoned their communities to reside in cities. In some affected communities, traditional rulers have been killed, accused either of supporting the government or reporting them to security agencies, the Human Right Activist further lamented.

RULAAC Boss added that there are thousands of victims of arbitrary arrests, unlawful detention under conditions that amount to torture, and other inhuman or degrading treatment; extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.

“There is no accountability for these many egregious human rights violations.  Victims receive no justice. Formal security and law enforcement agencies including the police, military, paramilitary agencies (e.g. civil defense) and intelligence agencies (DSS) operate jointly with informal or alternative security outfits (such as Ebubeagu in Imo and Ebonyi states) set up by the state governors. These alternative security outfits are controlled by the Governors who often use them for partisan political purposes including harassment and intimidation of political opponents, attacks on the media and human rights defenders, and to shrink civic space.

“A documentary chronicling the patterns of these abuses, showing the prevalence, highlighting the experiences of some of the victims, identifying the perpetrators and recommending measures for accountability and redress is what we plan to do in the coming year,” he said.