Tension is mounting in Anambra State over claims that the state-owned security outfit, Agunechemba, which Governor Charles Soludo set up to combat insecurity, is now preying on hapless citizens. These mounting allegations of intimidation and high-handedness excesses have raised fears that it may have strayed from its original mandate, LAWRENCE NJOKU reports.

In January this year, when Governor Charles Soludo of Anambra State signed the 2025 State’s Homeland Security Law that subsequently gave birth to the Agunechemba Security outfit, he did so with the conviction that it would engender improved security and restore order in the state.

At the launch of the security outfit, Soludo had, among others, stated that the special intervention force was an “emergency action” that would “complement regular policing by scaling intelligence gathering, reward whistleblowers, enhance rapid response, and urgently root out criminals from any camp in Anambra State.”

He added that the outfit, coming more than a year after the formation of Anambra State Special Anti-Touting Squad (SASA), would be active in all nooks and crannies of the state, with patrols and pin-down stop-and-search operations as necessary.

The governor emphasised that the establishment of the outfit became necessary following the upsurge in crimes like kidnapping, armed robbery, cultism, touting, and criminal idolatry that had given rise to a culture that celebrates wealth without enterprise.

Indeed, the residents welcomed the new law and the resultant security outfit with open arms, especially with the disturbing rise in killings and activities of gunmen, who had taken over the bushes and communities, heightening the tempo of insecurity.

Consequently, the outfit hit the ground running, arresting and detaining suspected criminals, as well as invading criminal hideouts to smoke out crime perpetrators. It was not long before it recovered some communities hitherto occupied by hoodlums, while native doctors with questionable motives started fleeing the state.

Some of the popular native doctors, such as Akwa Okuku (Chidozie) and Onyeze Jesus (Onyebuchi), were arrested and tried in courts. On one occasion, there was the claim that it uncovered 30 graves dug in a hotel premises allegedly used for criminal purposes.

But six months down the line, it appears the party is over as the outfit’s activities appear to be causing residents more harm than good.

In fact, posers are currently being raised on whether there are other motives behind the formation of the outfit than the protection of the life and property of citizens.

At the just-concluded by-elections in the state, its operatives were everywhere dictating the mode that security would take, contrary to the agreement that they should stay away from the process, especially in Anambra South.

Recently, the media space was awash with news of the beating and stripping naked of a serving National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member by operatives of the same outfit in the guise of enforcing their mandate.

In a video that went viral on social media, the female NYSC member was seen being flogged and stripped naked by the gun-wielding operatives at a compound in Oba, Idemili South Local Council of the state. She was later whisked away naked.
  
The Guardian gathered that the operatives, numbering about eight, invaded the “Corpers’ Lodge,” dragged and assaulted the female member identified as Jennifer Elohor, and some of her colleagues in the guise that they were suspected Internet fraudsters.

Anguished residents, who watched the viral video, asked about the level of crime and provocation that could have resulted in the magnitude of beating that the young lady received at the hands of the male operatives.

Several reports about the notoriety of the security outfit, especially the violation of the rights of people, as well as engagement in trial by ordeal, indicate that Elohor is not the first victim of the “irate” operatives, who allegedly arrest and detain people as they like. They also mount roadblocks and checkpoints and invade homes and public places at their will.

In June this year, the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), a human rights group, raised the alarm about the activities of the group, accusing its members of neglecting the rule of law in the course of their duties. 

In a letter to Governor Soludo, they had alleged reckless resort to false labelling, hearsay, and the entertainment of frivolous petitions, with which they detain residents inhumanely without proper investigations and trials.

The Board Chairman of the organisation, Emeka Umeagbalasi, who signed the letter, stated that they had strong evidence showing indiscriminate arrest, under controversial circumstances, and clamping into detention for three to five months of members of the public by the group in the guise of “being ritualists, kidnappers, armed robbers, Internet fraudsters, or herbalists providing charms to violent criminals.”

The group cited, among other cases, the detention of Udoka Ejimu, whose multimillion-naira hotel in Idemili South was bulldozed allegedly without proper investigation in an operation coordinated by members of the security outfit in the guise of the discovery of 30 human graves at the top floor of the hotel.
 
Umeagbalasi stated that a later investigation had revealed that the said “graves” upon which Ejimu was prosecuted were discovered to be fishponds that existed over the years that served the hotel’s barbecue section.

During the last by-election for the Anambra South Senatorial seat, members of the security outfit were everywhere, against an alleged agreement reached by political parties at a pre-election meeting that barred them from participating in it.

A group of journalists monitoring the by-election in Anambra South Senatorial zone, while narrating their ugly experiences at the hands of operatives of the security outfit, while monitoring the exercise, claimed that their vehicle was forcefully stopped and detained for hours by the group on an alleged order of a top government official, thereby preventing them from performing their duties.
 
Despite their repeated claims that they were journalists working in the state, they were thoroughly searched before being released, as the poll had ended in the area.
 
In the same vein, members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state have continued to question the perceived excesses of the security outfit in the state.
 
The State Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Basil Ejidike, recently narrated how officials of the outfit placed under house arrest, the senatorial candidate of the party in the last by-election, Azuka Okwuosa, while the exercise lasted.

However, in what looks like an admission to the shortcomings of the security outfit, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Community Security, Ken Emeakayi, stated that the outfit has been infiltrated by criminals.

He emphasised that the security outfit was launched to complement the efforts of the police in safeguarding residents amid growing insecurity in the state, even as he assured that efforts were underway for a comprehensive verification process to identify and remove individuals tarnishing the agency’s image.

“It is unacceptable for Agunechemba operatives to act with impunity and extort the same people they are meant to protect. Agunechemba operatives are not authorised to mount roadblocks or checkpoints. There are disturbing findings that some individuals now masquerade as Agunechemba members by day, only to engage in kidnapping at night.

Many of these unverified operatives have refused to undergo the mandatory profiling process, which has delayed their remuneration and raised suspicions about their legitimacy.

“We urge residents to stay vigilant and report any suspicious activity, not just by known criminals, but also by questionable members of the security outfit,” Emeakayi had stated.

While also disclosing that the government had settled the medical expenses, replaced the damaged laptop and mobile phone of the NYSC member assaulted recently, as well as issued a public apology, he stated that the eight persons involved in the act had been dismissed, stressing that the development marks a turning point in reforming the outfit and restoring public trust in community security operations.

When he reacted to the embarrassing incident of the corps member, Soludo also maintained that Agunechemba and Operation Udo Ga-achi were established by the Anambra Homeland Security Law 2025 “to maintain law and order, not to perpetrate violence and intimidation.”

He insisted that any form of assault perpetrated by any member of the security outfits is outside their code of conduct, and all those involved, particularly in the incident under reference, would face the full weight of the law.

Meanwhile, perturbed by wild stories trailing the security outfit, Ohanaeze Ndigbo has asked Soludo to immediately disband it and subject its members to drug tests.
 
The President of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council, Okwu Nnabuike, said the outfit had “brutalised several innocent people in the state and engaged in jungle justice for far too long.”
 
He advised Soludo to go back to the drawing board and organise a fresh recruitment exercise to avoid a repeat of what Nigerians watched in the video concerning the serving corps member.

Findings by The Guardian showed that before the creation of Agunechemba, the state’s community security had been managed and complemented by vigilante groups. It is these groups that transformed into Agunechemba, while traditional rulers and town unions also recruited members of their communities into it.
 
An indigene of the state, Dr Pat Onukwuli, when he wrote on the swift promulgation of the Homeland Security Law, warned that the introduction of Agunechemba would only add another layer of bureaucracy to an already convoluted system.

“Instead of addressing the root causes of insecurity, this new law risks compounding the issue, further entangling the territory in a web of ineffective policies and uncoordinated efforts,” he said.

He feared that granting the outfit powers to prosecute, among others, especially when there was no clear strategy on checks and balances in its operations, could promote lawlessness and chaos.