Solutions:
…total reversal and discontinuation of “the above the law license” on Fulani Jihadists and State Jihadism
…issuance of new C-in-C/Govs’ policy directions to checkmate and stamp out Fulani Jihadists/Jihadism
…withdrawal of the military from S/E, S/S, S/W and M/B Roads and deployment of trackers and detectives
…immediate reversal of C-in-C’s operational death code in the East and overhauling of the military, police, DSS
…discontinuation of Nnamdi Kanu’s trial, his release and placement on guided freedom of movement/assembly
Enugu, Eastern Nigeria
Tuesday, 18th July 2023
Our Clarion Calls
It is extremely important to note that the cardinal aim of our (Intersociety) detailed investigations and their findings below is to thoroughly unmask the breeders and triggers of insecurity and other unsafe conditions running riot on Nigeria or any part thereof and pushing the country steadily on the path of genocide and other forms of complex humanitarian emergencies. Apart from seeking to expose the breeders and triggers of the country’s ongoing insecurity and other unsafe conditions, Intersociety’s detailed investigations also sought for solutions capable of engendering ‘negative peace’ or making the country relatively peaceful within the context of peaceful coexistence, ethnic and religious tolerance and cohabitation especially with regard to right to Freedom of Religion, Worship or Belief. Intersociety’s investigations and their findings are also conveying ‘early warnings’ to political leaders in Nigeria and the general population. We are strongly warning those seeking to plunge Nigeria or any part thereof into the “Mullah Mohammed Omar’s Radical Islamic Caliphate of Afghanistan” model to desist, rewind and back off because what they are seeking or attempting to do is speedily nearing the nadir of irretrievable precipice-with capacity to violently dismember the country and have it intractably battered, balkanized, bastardized and uncontrollably weaponized. Apart from Nigeria being the most porous when it comes to influx, proliferation of illicit ‘Small Arms and Light Weapons’; with estimated 10m of them in wrong hands in Nigeria as against the radically Islamized and battered Republic of Afghanistan’s seven million SALWs; we also foresee in no distant time the likelihood, if extreme care is not taken, of ‘intra faith cultural revolution” within the Christendom against conformist Nigeria’s Christian leaders; with a clear case in point being the Central African Republic per rise of “Balaka Christian Counter Revolution against Fulani Jihadist Seleka Revolution”.
Intersociety hereby calls on the present Government of Nigeria and its Commander-in-Chief to urgently do and act as follows: (1)total reversal and discontinuation of “the alleged Buhari’s above the law license” on Fulani Jihadists/State Jihadism in Nigeria, (2) issuance of new Commander-in-Chief/Govs’ policy directions to checkmate and stamp out Fulani Jihadists/Jihadism (3) withdrawal of military personnel from South-East, South-South, South-West, Middle-Belt/North-Central/Southern Kaduna Roads and their replacement with electronic tracking machines and police detectives and other law enforcement crack squads, (4) immediate reversal and discontinuation of the Buhari’s alleged ‘C-in-C’s operational death code’ in the East, (5) overhauling and comprehensive reorganization of the Military, Police, NIA and DSS, (6) discontinuation or suspension of Nnamdi Kanu’s trial and his release and placement on guided freedom of movement and assembly 9parole) to douse insecurity and end mass atrocities in the South-East and Igbo part of the South-South, (7) abolition of Govs’ over-bloated monthly security votes or their proper codifications and drastic reduction and (8) urgent investigative interventions by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights through the UN’s Special Rapporteurs on Extrajudicial and Summary Executions or Killings; Enforced Disappearances; Torture/Other Inhuman and Degrading Punishments or Treatments; Arbitrary Arrests/Detentions; Environment and Human Rights; and Right to Adequate Housing or Shelter so as to ascertain the enormity or gravity of human rights abuses and violations connected to all of the above; identify their human and material victims and the state actors and the non state actors responsible or involved.
Our Investigative Findings:
(1)Alleged State Jihadism/‘C-in-C’s Above The Law License On Fulani Jihadists’
The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) has carried out detailed investigations and found that alleged quest for State Jihadism by former Government of Muhammad Buhari had led to the springing up of over 50 mostly Government-linked armed groups since 2015; leading to issuance of the alleged C-in-C’s above the law license on Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and the operational death code to military and police chiefs in Eastern Nigeria. The above has brought about unchecked insecurity and other unsafe conditions in Nigeria’s six regions of North-East, North-West, North-Central, South-West, South-South and South-East. Retired Major General Muhammad Buhari (as he then was) and his office had held sway as “Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces, the police and the intelligence services and the paramilitaries” from 29th May 2015 to 29th May 2023. Intersociety, led by criminologists, lawyers and security and peace studies’ graduateshad also in its detailed investigations found that the number of armed groups in Nigeria had risen from 3 as at May 2015 to 50 as at July 2023. It must be remembered that Nigeria was home to three major jihadist armed opposition groups in May 2015 including Boko Haram, ANSARU (Movement for the Protection of Muslims in Black Africa) and Fulani Herdsmen militias.
Also as at May 2015, the Fulani Herdsmen militias were at their second stage of transformation into ‘National Islamic Jihadist Insurgency’. The period (2015) also saw the “Zamfara Bandits” as a local Fulani militant group formed in 2011 in Maradum, Zamfara State over rift with indigenous Hausa Muslim population and their Vigilante (“Yan-Sai-Kai”). The full transformation of the Fulani Herdsmen and Zamfara Fulani Bandits into clandestinely State-backed “National Jihadist Armies” akin to Sudan’s Janjaweed took place in early 2016; same year the strongly suspected military-protected Fulani Jihadist incursions into South-West, South-South, South-East and Middle-Belt forests, bushes and farmlands began across Nigeria under the cover of “Operations Python Dance, Crocodile Tears, etc”. It must be reminded that all the Jihadist groups in Nigeria have since June 2020 formed alliances against Nigerian Christians and indigenous Hausa Muslim and Christian populations. Through former President Buhari’s alleged “C-in-C’s above the law license on Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen”, the Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen became an outlaw and untouchable-and hardly got arrested and brought to book for massacring thousands of defenseless Nigerians as a result of their religion and ethnicity. There was also ‘systematic and organized intra faith attacks against indigenous Hausa Muslims and other non Fulani Muslims especially in Kebbi, Zamfara, Sokoto, Katsina, Niger, etc. Properties especially dwelling houses and sacred places of worship and learning belonging to Christians were also burned down or wantonly destroyed-with the security forces turning blind eyes or offering “medicine-after-death services”. The shocking aspect of the above is that the alleged Buhari’s C-in-C’s “above the law license on Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and the operational death code to security forces and their chiefs in the East (culminating in class criminalization and false labeling and their attendant mass atrocities) have remained in force till date.
Intersociety had in the course of its detailed investigations found it difficult to locate official records showing the number of the arrested, investigated and prosecuted and sentenced Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen anywhere in the country since 2015. The Buhari’s era ‘C-in-C’s above the law license’ on Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen was further found to have made it a common practice within the security establishments to conceal the identities of the Fulani Jihadists when caught in atrocious acts; to the extent that the beginning of wisdom for survived victims of their jihadist attacks seeking for investigations is to use third party identities such as “unknown gunmen or hoodlums or bandits or IPOB/ESN terrorists as those that masterminded kidnappings or armed robberies and other violent attacks against their persons or properties. These must be done or complied with so as to receive investigative attentions which usually end up yielding nothing. To mention Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen as culprits instantly closes or brings such investigations to abrupt end. Identified in the course of our detailed investigations as part of Buhari’s alleged C-in-C’s “above the law license on Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen” are indiscriminate purchases of lands in Eastern Nigeria by proxies for purpose of Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen settlements and their Jihadist incursions and atrocities. The controversial land purchases have been secretly traced to the leaders of the MACABAN or Miyatti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria and the FUNAM or Fulani Nationality Movement. The former Buhari’s Government is also strongly suspected to be involved.
The most shocking aspect of the MACABAN and its jihadist Fulani Herdsmen’s controversial land purchases is the strongly suspected complicity of the drafted military and other security chiefs in the East and some greedy political actors and community leaders including but not limited to traditional rulers, local government chairmen and top sub-national Government functionaries. The drafted military and other security chiefs in the East are strongly suspected to be the enforcers of the Fulani land purchases or violent grabbing; done using threats of blackmail, force and invasion. It was also found by Intersociety that the drafted military chiefs use “IPOB/ESN terrorism” as a cover to invade various communities to camouflage/disguise their real motives of forcing the victim-communities to release their ancestral lands to MACABAN and Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen. Refusal by leaders of such communities end up attracting false labeling or group criminalization including being labeled or tagged “rogue traditional rulers providing training grounds or using their palaces for “IPOB/ESN training camps, etc”. Several Eastern communities have come under attack or invasion by the drafted military and police operatives and their commanders using “missing Fulani cows” or “killing and abduction of Fulani cows” as a cover.
Intersociety is therefore compelled by the above to believe that the drafted military personnel and police crack squads attach utmost importance to the lives of Muslim cows than lives and properties of defenseless Eastern population or citizens. Several cases in point abound including but not limited to the communities of Ohafia clans including Ebem and Amangwu Ohafia in Abia State, Agwa, Izombe and Okigwe clans in Imo State, Umunneochi, Leru, Lokpanta, and Isuikwuato clans in Abia State; Awgu, Akpawfu and its neighboring communities in Nkanu East of Enugu State; likewise Nimbo, Eha-Amufu, Eke, Udi, Ugwuogo-Nike and Opi-Nsukka clans in Enugu State; Ishiagu clans and others in Ebonyi State; and communities in Awka North, Awka South, Orumba North and Orumba South in Anambra State. It must further be informed that most of the above named communities have at several occasions received military threats or attacks or come under invasions and attacks by the Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen for their refusal to lease or release their lands to MACABAN and their Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen; done through proxies including camouflaged Federal or State Government “development plans”.
Intersociety had in the course of its detailed investigations interacted with some Traditional and Christian leaders in some of the affected communities. Akpawfu in Nkanu East of Enugu State, for instance, is being hunted by the military for dislodging the killer Herdsmen from their joint Communal Forest, called “Be ATUNSHI Forest” since March 2021. The Ohafia Traditional Rulers are being hunted by the military for refusing to give out their lands to MACABAN and Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen. Parts of Agwa clans in Oguta, Imo State have severally been raided by the military and other security forces over an allegation that “the community disappeared eight Fulani cows” after being raided by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen. Umuzu in Ogbaru, Anambra State was about three years ago militarily given a marching order to pay heavily for some “Fulani cows that got missing in the area or face invasion”. In Izombe, Oguta Local Government Area of Imo State, oil bunkering and military brutalities arising from disputes between the youths and the stationed military personnel over toll collections are behind constant military attacks in the area including killings and property burnings. The above are just to mention but a few; and the most shocking aspect is that out of the Nigeria’s 923,000 square kilometers of landmass, over 700,000 are located in the North, out of which Niger State alone accounts for 76,000 square kilometers which is three times larger than the total landmass of the South-East; measuring 29,525 square kilometers.
(2)Govs’ Over-Bloated Monthly Security Votes As Triggers Of Insecurity
Intersociety’s investigations also found the South-East State Govs as breeders of insecurity and other unsafe conditions. This they do by triggering and heightening insecurity and other unsafe conditions so as to over-bloat their un-codified and unaccountable monthly security votes and whimsically and capriciously squander them. This is to the extent that instead of the Govs outlining their development plans and pursuing same in furtherance of their campaign promises by cuing into the likes of the UNDP’s 1992 ‘Human Security and its Seven Dimensions (health security, food security, economic security, environmental security, personal security, community security and physical security), such Govs have been found to have turned around to “criminalize security and over-blow insecurity and other unsafe conditions”-with intents to over-bloat or jack-up their security votes and squander them at will. Intersociety had further investigated and found that even where or when security challenges are minimal or manageable; they are heightened and escalated by the Govs. A typical case in point was Anambra where Gov Charles Soludo on assumption of office “criminalized” security by over-blowing Monday-sits-at-home; a matter requiring tactical and diplomatic approaches or handling styles.
This is even when “sit-at-home”, though could be economically damaging, does not constitute criminal offense(s) clearly defined in any written law in Nigeria or any part thereof. Section 36 (8) and (12) of the Constitution of Nigeria 1999 as amended forbids any form of operational criminalization and punishment of any citizen over act or conduct such as ‘sit-at-home’ that does not constitute an offense clearly defined in a written law as at the time such act or conduct was carried out. Enugu State is another case in point where security is criminalized and over-blown into ‘insecurity’ for purpose of over-bloating and squandering security votes. The above is per new Gov Peter Mbah; Imo since 2021 under Gov Uzodinma and Rivers State under former Gov Onyesom Nwike (.i.e. Gov’s proclaimed and instigated Obigbo Army massacre and abductions of Oct-Nov 2020). Former Gov Dave Umahi remains the chief instigator of insecurity in the South-East and mass atrocities by security forces since 2021 and chief initiator of the Jihad-friendly Ebubeagu Vigilante militias” when he was “Chairman of the South-East Govs Forum”. In summary, the ‘criminalization of security into “insecurity” for purpose of over-bloating Govs’ monthly security votes and squandering of the same is presently causing their population average of N1b monthly per State. Added to the security sector corruption and crudities, they are behind the egregious and grisly rights abuses and violations including killings, abductions, disappearances, indiscriminate and arbitrary arrests/detentions, house burnings or property destructions, etc.
(3)Security Sector Corruption In The East As Triggers Of Insecurity
The above highlighted breeders and triggers of insecurity and other unsafe conditions in Nigeria or any part thereof are joined by the chronic and untamed security sector corruption in Eastern Nigeria; the country’s leading “blue-collar region”. The security sector corruption in the East includes but not limited to custodial and roadblock/checkpoint sundry extortions, solid mineral mining toll collections and illicit royalties including crude oil toll collections, joint imposition and collection of ransoms from kidnap victims by the drafted military and police and “Fulani Jihadist and Unknown Gunmen kidnappers”, conversion to private use and ownership of the “proceeds of crimes”, disguised or secret highway/roadway armed robberies, “returns” from transactional criminal citizens including illicit arms and ammunitions and drug traffickers and others trafficking in persons, electioneering and election day corrupt proceeds, etc. In the area of roadblocks/checkpoints alone, there are estimated 6000 police and 2000 military manning Trunk A, B and C road networks in the eleven States in the East or South-East and South-South. Intersociety has earned a national and international name and respectability in studying and tracking patterns and trends of police and military roadblock/checkpoint extortions across Nigeria particularly in the South-East since 2010. Therefore, going by our recent checks across the eleven States in the East, it was observed and found that at minimum of N100, 000 illicitly collected daily by each of the estimated 2000 military roadblocks in South-East and South-South, estimated N200m is illicitly pocketed daily; N6b monthly and N72b yearly; at minimum of N60, 000 illicitly collected daily by each of the estimated 6000 police roadblocks in the two Regions, N360m is illicitly pocketed daily; N10.8b monthly and N130b yearly. The above is to say that the Nigerian military personnel and their commanders deployed on Eastern roads of Edo, Delta, Anambra, Enugu, Imo, Ebonyi, Abia, Rivers, Akwaibom, Bayelsa and Cross River illicitly pocket not less than N72b annually while the not less than 6000 police roadblocks illicitly pocket not less than N130b per annum.
(4)Alleged ‘C-in-C’s Operational Death Code’ In Eastern Nigeria As Triggers Of Insecurity
The former President Buhari’s alleged “operational death code” issued to drafted security forces and their commanders in the East as ‘Nigeria’s Commander-in-Chief between 29th May 2015 to 29th May 2023, which is still in force till date, is a clear case of ‘license-to-kill’ defenseless Christian citizens of the South-East and Igbo part of the South-South and wantonly destroy their ancestral dwelling houses and other properties using ethnic profiling, class criminalization, false labeling and hearsay conclusions. The drafted security forces and their commanders’ operations in the South-East and Igbo South-South are also nothing short of ‘trial-by ordeal’ lacking ‘Repugnancy Test’ and generally ruled by ‘hearsay pieces of evidence and hearsay conclusions; a replication of the “jungle justice” of the Hobbesian or Stone Age era”. The generality of the above has been found to be hinged on the fact that under the alleged Buhari’s C-in-C’s ‘operational death code in the East, defenseless citizens and their properties are indiscriminately and grisly targeted for extrajudicial killing and wanton destruction using class criminalization, ethno-religious profiling and false labeling.
Such ‘killing at will’ and wanton destruction of properties are recklessly perpetrated by the drafted security forces and their commanders and falsely linked to “IPOB/ESN terrorism”. These are to the extent that unproved and unsubstantiated allegations such as “being a member of IPOB” has become an operational death code. Apart from ‘membership of IPOB’ not being a license to kill under Nigeria’s criminal and human rights laws and regional and international treaties, except if he or she is armed with prohibited firearms and on rampage; the drafted security forces and their commanders in the East have atrociously continued to see, “every non Muslim Easterner as a member of IPOB; exposing him or her to instant and close-range shooting and killing”. Urban and rural dwellers and passersby within the vicinities where violent crimes are reported have severally been killed in their large numbers and falsely labeled and paraded as “members of IPOB engaging security forces in a gun duel or enforcing illegal/unlawful sit-at-home”. Other innocent and defenseless victims of the security forces’ open or secret killings in the East are leisure and sporting activists and other social events’ attendants or returnees especially during Monday-sit-at home or memorial sit-at home. Under false gallantry, too, hundreds of defenseless citizens have been gunned down in the East by the drafted security forces and falsely labeled members of “proscribed IPOB/ESN”; yet in the North, Muslim citizens go about their businesses and their properties protected without being falsely labeled “Boko Haram terrorists”.
The most shocking part of the above is that under the watch of the drafted security forces and their commanders in the East, Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen recklessly brandish and attack defenseless Easterners with assault rifles such as AK-47s and get maximum securitization cover and never touched. It is in line with the alleged Buhari’s “C-in-C’s operational death code” to the military, police and DSS in the East that former IGP, Alkali Baba Usman directed his officers in 2021 to “take the war to pro-Biafra agitators and kill them and you will be protected from culpability for extrajudicial killings”. The late Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Attahiru Ibrahim had in the same 2021 directed his officers and personnel to “take the war to South-East (Igbo) communities where soldiers are attacked or killed”. Just recently, the newly appointed Chief of Army Staff, Mr. Major General Taoreed Lagbaja; a notorious conduct-atrocity perpetrator in his days as GOC, 82 Division, Enugu, directed his officers and personnel to “takeover and occupy South-East communities where IPOB members are enforcing sit-at-home”. Anambra’s new CP, Aderemi Adeoye also recently directed his officers that “if killing some will make the State to be protected, then so be it”.
Therefore, for us at the Intersociety, the congregation and aggregation of the above is a clear manifestation and pointer to the alleged Buhari’s “C-in-C’s operational death code” to security forces and their commanders in the East, aimed at: “abducting and torturing; disappearing, killing, looting, plundering and destroying the defenseless lives and properties in the East”; to the extent that not less than 6000 unarmed citizens of the Region; all members of Trado-Judeo-Christian faiths have been killed or abducted by the drafted security forces and their mostly linked over 20 non state armed fighting and counter-fighting parties during which over 3000 dwelling homes were burned down or wantonly destroyed between October 2020 and July 2023 or a period of past 33 months. The alleged Buhari’s “C-in-C’s operational death code” to security forces against innocent and defenseless Easterners has remained un-vacated and in force till date.
(5)Over 50 Armed Groups Spring-Up In Nigeria In Eight Years
The number of ‘armed opposition groups spread across the country as at today had risen from three as at May 2015 to over 50 as at today (July 2023) with different factions or splinters within some groups. Among the Jihadist Fulani Bandits alone, there are more than 15 splinter groups and among the Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen, there are over five including indigenized Fulani Jihadists and regionally assembled Jihadists comprising Fulanis from neighboring African countries, Shuwa Arab and Bagara Jihadists, etc. There are also group of Al-Qaeda-allied Jihadists and Jihadist Mercenaries assembled from failed Republics of Libya and Sudan and Maghreb Africa. It must be noted that there is ongoing “Fulani Islamic Jihadism” across Africa, responsible for jihadist attacks in Christian dominant countries of Mozambique, Ivory Coast, Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo Republic, Cameroon, Benin Republic, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic (Seleka Islamic Revolutionaries), Namibia, Uganda, etc and Muslim dominant countries of Niger, Chad, Mali, Guinea, Senegal, etc. Among the over 50 armed opposition groups found to be triggering insecurity and other unsafe conditions in Nigeria are the Islamic State insurgents and others linked to Al-Qaeda, numbering over five including ISWAP. Going by recent revelations by Alhaji Mujahadeen Asari Dokubo (ex Niger Delta chief militant-turned radical Islamist), there are now Jihadist Niger Delta militants linked to the Nigerian Government wrecking havocs in Old Middle-Belt, especially Benue and Plateau States and South-East States of Imo, Ebonyi and Anambra, etc through the Govs of those States and Federal Government of Nigeria.
(6)The Rise Of Over 20 Armed Killer Entities In The South-East In Eight Years
There are not less than 20 armed killer entities in the South-East and Igbo part of the South-South-with most of them openly or secretly linked to various State Governments or Federal Government of Nigeria. Openly linked to the Governments of Imo and Ebonyi, for instance, are the “Ebubeagu killer Vigilante Groups”; formed in April 2021. In Anambra and Abia, there are “Anambra and Abia Vigilante Groups” engaging in sundry atrocious conducts. Killer services of the ex Niger Delta militants have also been secured to swell the ranks of killer entities in the South-East and Igbo part of the South-South. For instance, our gathered intelligence in 2022 indicated that the services of about 150 ex Niger Delta militants were secured by the Government of Anambra State under Prof Charles Soludo in 2022 and were placed under the operational control of one of the federal security formations in the State and quartered in some local government headquarters including Aguata and Nnewi South. Former ex chief militant, Asari Dokubo may be contacted for rest of the story. In Imo and Ebonyi, the ex Niger Delta militants are strongly suspected to be part of the killer entities through the instrumentalities of the atrocious Ebubeagu Vigilante Groups. It is also strongly suspected that South-East is presently troubled by the jihadist activities of the duo of the Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and the MACABAN’s Fulani Vigilante Groups (strongly suspected to have been peopled by “repented and un-repentant” Boko Haram insurgents and Fulani Jihadists). The MACABAN’s Fulani Vigilante Groups are strongly suspected to have been deployed in various secret locations in the South-East and South-South under heavy protection and complicity of the country’s security forces.
Several private armies, with many secretly linked to some top functionaries of some State Governments also exist and operate in the South-East. A serving Commissioner in Anambra State, for instance, was recently accused strongly of running a private army that specializes in kidnap-for-ransom, frame-ups and premeditated homicides, etc. He was also accused of purchasing lands for MACABAN and Fulani Jihadists in some communities located in Awka North, Awka South, Oyi, etc, all within Anambra State. Another strongly suspected Imo and Ebonyi State Governments/Federal Government-linked killer entity wrecking havocs in the South-East and Igbo part of the South-South is the “Autopilot” counterfeit agitators led by Simon Ekpa; who are behind enforcement of ‘Monday-sit-at home and related others across the South-East. By circumstantial evidence, the armed counterfeit agitators are independently estimated to possess three times more the number of prohibited firearms or assault rifles than IPOB’s ESN. Over 60% of armed members of the “Autopilots” are also drawn from Ebonyi State, the home-State of Simon Ekpa. According to criminologists and security experts spoken to, “the above can only be achievable through the secret hands and sponsorship of one or two sub-national Governments or the Central Government of Nigeria considering huge cash and human resources required to achieve such height”.
It is also being strongly suspected that the subversive elements within the Nigerian security forces are behind the counterfeit violent activities of the “Biafra National Guards”; another killer armed group behind non state or State conspiratorial armed opposition group engaging in mass atrocities in the South-East and Igbo part of the South-South. A respected Criminologist who preferred anonymity recently told Intersociety that “some indoctrinated BNG activists have been recruited by subversive elements within the security forces and introduced into joining in carrying out violent activities with intent to counterfeit and blackmail IPOB and use such violence as a cover to visit unspeakable violent attacks on defenseless South-East citizens using class criminalization and false labeling”. Also, among over 20 killer armed entities in the South-East are the Eastern Security Network, formed by IPOB in Dec 2020 to counter Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen incursion into South-East forests, bushes and farmlands They had between January and Dec 2021 engaged in reprisal radicalism targeted at Government facilities and security personnel during which scores of defenseless citizens were collaterally killed or maimed. Also identified and categorized by Intersociety are “deviant-agitators” who have taken to violence and transformed themselves into “armed extortionist and robbery private armies”. Aside all of the above, South-East is home to hundreds of ‘street criminal entities’ perpetrating offenses of armed robbery (.i.e. highway/roadway/street/bank robberies), kidnap-for-ransom, gun-point cybercrimes, stealing, roadside and motor-park touting, political thuggery and brigandage, carjacking, drug and arms trafficking, assault occasioning grievous body harms, assassination, violent land/property grabbing or encroachment and other sundry crimes against persons and properties.
(7) How Politico-Religious Crimes/Insecurity Overrun Nigeria’s Six Regions In Eight Years
The insecurity and other unsafe conditions ravaging Nigeria have become shockingly alarming that today, all the 36 States and the FCT are under siege, spread and escalated from May 2015 when the country’s ‘BAY’ States of Borno, Yobe, Adamawa and Taraba; joined by restricted jihadist Fulani Herdsmen attacks in Plateau, Benue and Southern Kaduna as at May 2015 when the named areas were the major flashpoints. These are without prejudice to traditional street criminalities common in ‘blue-collar’ urban and semi-urban cities of the country. Today, North-East is ravaged by Boko Haram, ISWAP, Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and Jihadist Fulani Bandits’ Islamic insurgencies and traditional street criminalities, etc. The North-West is majorly ravaged by Jihadist Fulani Bandits’ terror attacks mostly targeted at indigenous Hausa Muslim, Christian and traditionalist populations as well as Christian residents and travelers from other parts of Nigeria. The above is to the extent that since January 2016 till date, hell had been let loose on lives and properties of the indigenous Christians and indigenous and moderate Hausa Muslims of Kebbi, Kaduna, Zamfara, Katsina and Sokoto in addition to Niger State as well as non indigenous/non Muslim residents in those areas. The North-West Region is also home to Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen attacks especially Southern and other non Muslim parts of Kaduna State; in addition to traditional street criminalities in the State’s urban centers. The North-Central is the hotbed of Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen attacks and large incidences of Jihadist Fulani Bandits’ attacks, allied with Boko Haram insurgents particularly in Niger State; in addition to traditional street criminalities in their urban cities. In South-West, its Christian parts and non Muslim others are under severe attacks by the combined forces of Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and Jihadist Fulani Bandits as well as traditional street criminalities ravaging the likes of Lagos and Ogun States.
The South-East and greater part of South-South are ravaged by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen attacks and “unknown gunmen criminal entities”; numbering not less than 20 including eight recently identified in Imo State alone. These armed killer entities include private armies, government political death squads and federal and sub-national Governments’ clandestinely funded armed counterfeit agitators such as “Autopilots” of Simon Ekpa group. The entire South-East and greater part of the South-South Region are also home to counter Fulani jihad’s Eastern Security Network of IPOB formed in Dec 2020. Other killer entities in the South-East are State Governments’ funded killer groups including Ebubeagu Militias in Imo and Ebonyi and atrocious Vigilantes in Anambra and Abia. The two Regions as “blue-collar society” are also home to hundreds of street criminal entities; joined by killer military and police personnel mindlessly engaging in security sector brutalities and corruption including roadblock extortions and illegal collection of oil and solid mineral royalties. Edo and some parts of Delta are also home to foreign Jihadists and Jihadist Fulani Bandits’ attacks and those of the Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen; comprising indigenized and regionally assembled Jihadists of the Fulani descent who presently occupy over 700 forest/bush and farmland locations in Igbo speaking areas of Rivers, Delta, Edo, Kogi, Nasarawa, Benue, Anambra, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Imo, Enugu, Abia and Ebonyi.
Intersociety had since January 2016 followed and studied the Nigerian military and policing institutions’ “crude, discriminatory and vindictive internal security operations” in Eastern Nigeria and their conspiratorial and lukewarm responses to Jihadists’ threats and attacks against defenseless Eastern Christians and their properties their burnings and wanton destructions targeted at their sacred places of worship, living homes, ancestral fallow and cultivated farmlands. The security forces’ atrocities monitored since January 2016 included their patterns and trends. Forming part of our investigative findings of this Report are pieces of information and intelligence obtained from friendly military and policing circles, witnesses and victims’ accounts and vital information from reports by local and international media, religious and research authorities and investigative rights abuse reports from some leading international human rights groups.
Signed
For: International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety)
Emeka Umeagbalasi (Criminologist-Researcher), Board Chair
Obianuju Joy Igboeli, Esquire, Head of Civil Liberties and Rule of Law
Chidinma Udegbunam, Esquire, Head of Publicity
Ositadinma Agu, Head of Int’l Contacts and Mobilization
Contacts: WhatsApp/Mobile: +2348174090052: Email: info@intersociety-ng.org, Website: https://intersociety-ng.org