A human rights group, International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), has condemned the continued silence of the Anambra State government to the gruesome murder of a mother of four, Mrs. Chioma Okeke, allegedly by the state government-funded newly created Agunaechemba Security Outfit.

Okeke, a Chemistry teacher at the Anglican Secondary School, Nnewi, was killed on April 15 at the Ibeto junction by a stray bullet fired by the operatives who allegedly engaged in a shooting spree to clear a gridlock.

The teacher, who was said to have been recruited into the State’s Post Primary School System by the government of Prof. Charles Soludo in 2022, was said to be on her way home from school when she met her untimely death.

A statement by the Intersociety, signed by its Board Chairman, Emeka Umeagbalasi, while condemning the silence of the state government since the incident, said it was more painful even when the lead perpetrator and four others were identified.

“Sadly, despite widespread outcry and publicity following the gruesome murder, the State Government under Gov. Charles Soludo has kept mute to date. The above is even when we are not aware of any concrete step taken by the governor and his administration, including a visit to the family by top officials of the State Government and tendering of unreserved public apologies, offering the family adequate compensation, offsetting the deceased’s funeral expenses, and offering scholarships to her four kids to university level.

“Nothing has also been heard concerning public condemnation by the State Government of the dastardly act of the culprits and distancing the State Government from such a dastardly act; and total overhauling of the security outfit to prevent recurrence and foster sanity,” the statement said.

The group argued that the “failure” of the state government in the above was seen as nothing short of giving an immunity cover to the security outfit, its leadership, and operatives and designating them as an outlaw and untouchable.

It observed in the letter that the most worrying and shocking of all is that the security outfit is observing its Establishment Law (Anambra Homeland Security Law 2025) in gross breach “to the extent that most of the State security outfit’s operational modus are strange and strangers to the provisions of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution, particularly its Chapter Four’s Sections 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, and 42”.

“It is also against the backdrop of several reports of the security outfit’s gross misconduct, including extrajudicial killings, abductions, disappearances, torture, property violence and theft: debt recovery and involvement and criminalisation of family or domestic or civil matters.

Others are roadblock brutality and extortion, false labelling, cooking up of evidence, conclusions arising from hearsay, trump-up charges, trial-by-ordeal, indiscriminate arrests, unlawful detention, and detention without trial,” it stated.

The group therefore urged the state government to take full responsibility by sanitizing the State security outfit and returning it to the path of sanity, due process, and rule of law and ensure that Okeke’s funeral expenses are taken care of; and scholarships to university level awarded to her four kids while those involved in her gruesome murder are made to face the full wrath of the law to deter others and prevent future reoccurrences.

Intersociety also demanded the public disclosure of the whereabouts and full custodial details of the remaining Traditional Religion and Medicine practitioners arrested across the State and held untried since January 28, 2025.

It said that despite the disclosure by the state government that “not less than 30 Native Doctors and Ndi Ezenwanyi are in the custody of the State Government as at last count”, only three had so far been arraigned in court.

“The belated court arraignment of the trio followed public outcry and release of our 35-page Special Report on Attacks and Violence against Freedom of Religion or Worship or Belief in South-East Nigeria, dated April 3, 2025. Apart from the fact that nothing is heard to date concerning the remaining others, numbering not less than 37, provisions of the Anambra Homeland Security Law 2025 are also found to have been observed in gross breach by the security outfit and the Government of Aambra State,” the group stated.