CSO decries alleged maltreatment of Octogenarian by vigilante group in Rivers

A human rights organization, Civil Rights Council, has urged the Rivers State Police Command to call the leader of a local vigilante group in Umuegbelegbe village in Ubima community in Ikwerre Council of the state, Azubuike Wali to order so as to avert crisis in the area.

The National Coordinator of the Civil Rights Council, Aruchukwu Ogbonna expressed displeasure at how some members of a local vigilante group known as the Ubima Security Advisory Committee (UBISPAC) allegedly invaded and destroyed the compound of an 87-year-old man identified as Christopher Igwe.

Ogbonna claimed that the UBISPAC leader and his team also drove the 87-year-old man away from his compound with his aged wife following an alleged offense committed by his son, Wisdom Igwe who had since fled the community.

He said: “I realized that the son of elder Christopher Igwe, one Wisdom Igwe has run out of the community for a long time now for fear of being involved in the community crisis.

“Wisdom is one progressive mind seeking alternative dispute resolution on how to restore peace in the community. It is an issue related to his activism and advocacies that provoked this current attack on the parents and their properties.

“We condemn this attack on the compound and human rights violations in its entirety. We urged any citizen who feels aggrieved to seek redress in the court of law or approach any of the security agencies to address their grievances but taking the law into one’s hands is criminal and unacceptable and it exacerbates security situations at any point in time.”

He cautioned that such action, if not checked might provoke the breach of peace in the community.

“We call on the Rivers State government and the security agencies and the Ubima ruling class to work hand in hand to ensure that this kind of situation does not repeat itself and that those who are involved in this dastardly act of condemning people’s property, frustrating human right according to the law.”

Meanwhile, efforts to reach out to leaders of the local security outfit have not been successful as his mobile phone lines failed to connect.