Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), yesterday, said President Muhammadu Buhari’s recent approval of the deployment of additional security personnel in the South East will aggravate extra-judicial killings in the region.

In a statement issued by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, the group expressed concern that the path to lasting peace and security in the southeastern states of Imo, Enugu, Anambra, Ebonyi and Abia, was true federalism.

It stressed that only true federalism will allow governors full control over security agents as the Chief Security Officers (CSOs) of their states.

For about a year, the South East had become another killing field as non-state actors and state actors constantly clash, leading to the killing of hundreds of Igbo youths and citizens.

Unknown gunmen had razed several police stations, government institutions and private assets, with corresponding casualty figures.

The most recent attack was last Saturday’s bombing of the Umuguma Divisional Police Headquarters in Owerri West Council, where two police officers were killed.

Earlier, the country home of the President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Prof. George Obiozor at Awo-Omanma in Oru East Council, was also razed.

Security agents including soldiers, air force men and policemen have also allegedly killed hundreds of Igbo youths, who were branded as members of the Eastern Security Network arm of the Indigenous People of Biafra.

Security agents under Operations Crocodile Smile, among others, caused the killing and incarceration of Igbo youths.

The Guardian recalled that President Buhari recently summoned Governor Hope Uzodimma over the killings and attacks, where the governor accused aggrieved politicians of orchestrating violence in Imo.

But Uzodimma said the President approved the request for deployment of more security personnel to the Imo with a view to checking insecurity in the state.

Responding to the development, HURIWA faulted the deployment of additional security agents, saying such a move had not worked in the past, but only worsened the security crisis in Imo and other South-East states.

“At this time, the deployment of more security agents to the South East is a wrong decision. The move shows the failure of federalism, as it should be because governors who are CSOs of their states have no control of the police and so we see a dysfunctional democracy and federalism in which the President summons governors, who ought to be executive heads of their states,” the statement added.