Public Interest Letter Of Extreme Urgency And Importance
Address:
41, Miss Elems Street, Onitsha
Anambra State, Nigeria
Tuesday, Sept 26, 2023
Lieutenant General Toareed Lagbaja
Chief of Army Staff of the Nigerian Army
The Army Headquarters, Plot 1092 Mohammed Buhari Way
Area 7, Garki, Abuja, FCT, Nigeria
Dear COAS,
To Ensure Participatory, Free, Fair, Credible And Secured Nov 11, 2023 Imo Governorship Election: Time Has Come To Transfer The Commandant/Principal Officers And Field Operational Commanding Officers Of The 34 Brigade In Imo State And Keep The Imo State Government-funded Ebubeagu Militias And Armed Others Off From Polling Units And Result Collation Centers On Election Day
- The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety); a respected Human Rights and Democracy Voice in Nigeria and beyond since 2008, is writing you as the COAS regarding the above underlined subject matter. This public interest letter is in accordance with the constitutional and statutory powers vested on you by Section 217 (2) (d) of the Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution as amended and the command and control provisions contained in the Armed Forces Act of 2004 as amended. Our writing you is specifically predicated on the roles assigned to the Nigerian Army to assist the policing and intelligence agencies and the civil authorities in ensuring safety and security of the citizens and properties for general promotion and substance of democracy and democratic process in Nigeria or any part thereof including Imo State.
- As you are aware, Imo State, located in South-East part of Nigeria will be having a crucial Governorship Election on Nov 11, 2023. The security and safety of citizens and properties in the State have been gravely threatened and almost uprooted; to the extent that the State has become “a killing field” since Jan 2021. The GRAVE insecurity and other unsafe conditions enveloping the State are also traced by our several research and investigative Reports to judicially rooted ‘politics of the graveyard’. It must be remembered that some corrupt INEC staffs and their criminal activities perpetrated during the 2019 Imo Governorship Election have been remotely responsible for unchecked atrocities against defenseless citizens and properties in the State since Jan 2021.
- Be further informed that some corrupt INEC officials had colluded with some top functionaries and other agents of the present Government of Imo State to ‘harvest results’ from 311 poling units where voting was canceled as a result of violence. The harvested results were packaged to mislead the Supreme Court and formed the basis for the Apex Court’s pronouncement of Hope Uzodinma as ‘Imo Governor’ on 14th Jan 2020. Since then, the State has been embroiled in unchecked mass atrocities brought about by egregious insecurity and other unsafe conditions.
- Statistically speaking, Intersociety (International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law) had in its ‘Special Research and Investigative Report on Imo found that In 29 Months (Jan 2021-May 2023) Under Gov Hope Uzodinma In Nigeria’s Imo State: Security Forces And Allied Militias Killed 900 Unarmed Citizens Outside The Law, Wounded 700, Arbitrarily Arrested And Detained 3500, Extorted 1,400, Disappeared 300, Burned Down 1,200 Civilian Houses, Displaced Their 30,000 Owners And Forced 500,000 Citizens In Active Age-Brackets To Flee To Escape Being Shot And Killed Or Abducted And Disappeared In Security Custody. The Research And Investigative Report Also Found That Armed Non-State Actors: Fulani Jihadists, Hired Ex Niger Delta Militants, Counterfeit Agitators (.i.e. Autopilots and Biafra National Guards), Government-Linked Political Death Squads, Street Violent Criminal Entities (kidnappers and armed robbers), Etc, Killed 700 (400 In Captivity And 300 In Open Shootings) And Abducted 900 Others.
- The 33-Page Report was unveiled on 21st May 2023 at international media conference in Enugu in Eastern Nigeria and was widely published by most of the leading media in Nigeria including the Vanguard, Punch, Sun, This Day, the Nation, the Leadership, the Daily Telegraph, the Daily Independent, Guardian, Daily Post, African Examiner, Daily Asset and News Express, News-Band, the Nigeria-Lawyer, the Trent, West African Pilot, the Nigerian Voice and the African Independent Television (AIT) and some international news media. The Special Report cardinally sought and is still seeking to expose those that killed, abducted, disappeared, arbitrarily arrested and detained and tortured; those that aided, abetted and omitted to act to stop the killings, abductions, disappearances and torture; and those that were killed, abducted, tortured and disappeared. The Report also sought to ascertain: when, where, how and why the killings, abductions, arbitrary arrests and detentions, torture and disappearances and the location and number of houses and other defenseless civilian properties burned down or wantonly destroyed and those that were and still responsible or aided and abetted their burnings or destructions.
- The 33-Page Special Report also contained several sections including local, regional and international legal frameworks, lists of victims and state and non state actor perpetrators, etc. For full details, the link is here: https://intersociety-ng.org/armed-state-actors-and-armed-non-state-actors-killed-1600-unarmed-citizens-in-29-months-in-imo-state/. In the past 120 days or four months after our Special Report of May 21, 2023; over 200 civilian lives and 250 civilian houses and thousands of other properties have been wantonly destroyed by armed state actors especially the drafted personnel of the Nigerian Army, Nigeria Police Force and killer operatives of the Imo Ebubeagu Militias as well as armed non state criminal entities mentioned above. Our Organization, Intersociety, had also on August 28, 2023, released a 15-Page Special Report, titled: “Who Is Killing Who In Igbo Land (including Rivers and Delta States) Since Jan 2021”. Apart from the identifying not less than 20 Government-linked armed killer entities and over 300 ‘street criminal entities’ and tens of thousands of ‘criminal persons’ operating in Igbo Land; the drafted security forces from the Military, the Spy Police and the crack squads of the Nigeria Police Force are also found to be involved in the killings and burnings outside the law in the seven Igbo controlled States. The link to the Report is here: https://intersociety-ng.org/who-is-killing-who-outside-the-law-in-igbo-land/
- Families No Longer Bury Their Dead In Imo: The wanton destruction of lives and properties in 33 months gone by in Imo State under Gov Hope Uzodinma is so shocking, chilling and alarming that many families in the affected local government areas/communities no longer ancestrally give their loved ones who died naturally or unnaturally befitting burials and funerals. Natural and slain dead bodies are mostly smuggled in at nights and secretly and indecently buried, after which their funerals are held or organized outside their ancestral homes including at urban residences located in Umuahia, Owerri, Port Harcourt, Aba, Enugu, Onitsha, Nnewi and so on. The Imo Local Government Areas mostly affected or worst hit by the ongoing grisly and egregious destruction of defenseless lives and properties include Orsu, Orlu, Oru East, Oru West, Mbaitoli, Ngor-Okpala, Oguta, Ohaji/Egbema, Okigwe, Ideato North, Ideato South, Owerri Municipal, Owerri North, Owerri West, Ahiazu-Mbaise, Ezinifite-Mbaise, Onuimo, Njaba, Isu, Nwangele, Nkwere and Ehime-Mbano.
- Imo State of Nigeria under Gov Hope Uzodinma has become the most violent and human rights abusing and violating State in Old Eastern Nigeria and one of the most violent States in the country. The State is majorly troubled by state actor driven insecurity and other unsafe conditions; directly or indirectly funded with Imo public or taxpayers’ funds and perpetrated under the watch of the present Governor and Government of Imo State since January 2021. The State has become so unsafe and insecure under Hope Uzodinma as Imo Governor that from Jan 2021 to this Sept 2023; a period of 33 months or two years and nine months, the deployed security forces and allied militias have killed at least 1,100 defenseless and unarmed citizens, wounded 800, arrested 3800, disappeared 400, invaded 90 communities in at least 20 of the State’s 27 Local Government Areas where at least 1,450 civilian houses and other properties including market stores, event centers and Bars, etc were atrociously burned down or destroyed. The attacks by security forces and allied militias have also displaced at least 60,000 occupants or owners of the 1,450 burned down or destroyed civilian houses from Jan 2021-Sept 2023. The fears generated by the egregious and grisly attacks have forced at least 600,000 defenseless citizens in productive age-brackets to flee their homes and relocate to places considered to be safer to avoid being abducted and killed in custody or shot and killed at sight; or sexually harassed or raped to death in captivity, in the case of young females.
- Our Interest Is To See Imo Voters And Their Properties Secured And Protected:Our priceless interest in Imo State is purely borne out of desire to have decency and sanctity of the Ballot Box restored and Imo voters and their properties secured and protected again in the State after the January 14, 2020 Nigeria’s Supreme Court verdict that installed Hope Uzodinma as Governor. However, the above will be too difficult to achieve in atmosphere of continued onslaughts by unchecked armed state actors and untamed armed non state actors. You are hereby strongly called upon to assist and ensure that Imo Voters and their properties are secured and protected to freely vote for Governorship Candidates of their choice on Nov 11, 2023. Apart from ensuring their security and safety, the voting routes and environments and their residences and properties must also be secured and subversive elements within the security forces including Nigerian Army under you and all armed non state criminal entities stopped from wrecking more havocs. It is our firm ground that “200,000 living votes are greater than 2m dead votes” in Imo.
- Time To Transfer The 34 Brigade Commandant (Owerri) And Other Principal Officers: Time has come for the COAS to transfer the 34 Brigade Commandant in Imo State and other principal officers and field operational commanding officers including commanding officers of the 34 Brigade Military Police. Apart from having been indicted in our several reports on Imo State especially their involvement in series of unlawful killings and civilian properties’ burnings since Jan 2021; they have also failed woefully in keeping Imo safe and secured. They are also neutrality and integrity challenged going by their reported partisan roles in the run up to and during the 2023 National/State Assembly Elections in Imo State.
- Ebubeagu Militias And Others And Their Unlawful Conducts Must Be Tamed On Election Day
By the consequential effects of the Landmark Judgment of the Abakiliki Division of the Federal High Court in February 2023, following abduction and attempted murder in Nov 2022 of Hon Abia Onyeike, a former Commissioner for Information and State Orientation, the Imo State Government funded Ebubeagu Militias (Vigilante Group) are now an unlawful armed group and therefore must not be allowed any operational space during the Nov 11, 2023 Imo State Governorship Election. It is recalled that the Federal High Court sitting in Abakiliki had in Feb 2023 proscribed the Ebubeagu Vigilante Group in Ebonyi State for “engaging in human rights abuses, extortions, illegal arrests and illegal use of firearms”. By Section 287 (3) of the 1999 Constitution as amended, “the decisions of the Federal High Court or a State High Court, etc shall be enforced in any part of the Federation by all authorities and persons-and by other courts of law with subordinate jurisdiction to that of the Federal High Court…”. The COAS is therefore strongly called upon to ensure that the murderous Imo State Government funded Ebubeagu Militias (Vigilante Group) and allied others such as the hired Ex Niger Delta Militants, the “Ohaji Confraternity Cultists” and other Government-linked Political Death Squads are not allowed access to all the poling units or ward, local government/district and State result collation centers during the Nov 11, 2023 Imo Governorship Election.
Signed:
For: International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law
Emeka Umeagbalasi, Board Chairman
(B.Sc. Criminology and Security Studies, M.Sc. Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution)
Chinwe Umeche Esquire (LL.B, BL)
Head, Democracy and Good Governance
Obianuju Joy Igboeli Esquire (LL.B, BL)
Head, Civil Liberties and Rule of Law
Chidinma Evangeline Udegbunam Esquire (LL.B, BL)
Head, Campaign and Publicity
Contacts:
Email: info@intersociety-ng.org
Website: https://intersociety-ng.org
CC:
The Chief of Defense Staff, Defense Headquarters, Abuja, Nigeria
Notification:
The National Security Adviser, Aso Rock, Abuja, Nigeria (notified)
The Minister of Interior, Abuja, Nigeria (notified)