The National President of the Igbo Women Assembly (IWA), Lolo Nneka Chimezie, has challenged the attribution of insecurity in the South-East to the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), the Eastern Security Network (ESN) and Igbo youths, arguing that the identities of five suspects arraigned over the abduction of prospective National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members warrant a broader investigation.

Chimezie also called for a review of military deployments and security checkpoints across the region, alleging that their proliferation had failed to curb kidnapping and other violent crimes. She urged South-East governors and community leaders to strengthen local vigilante structures and improve cooperation with law enforcement agencies.

She spoke in reaction to the reported arraignment of five suspected abductors before the Imo State High Court in Owerri over the abduction of prospective corps members along the Owerri–Onitsha Expressway.

The suspects were identified as Usman Aliyu, Babangida Aliyu, Mohammed Ali, Aminu Haliru and Ibrahim Jiji.

According to Chimezie, the identities of the suspects, whom she described as non-indigenes of the South-East, challenge claims that IPOB, ESN and Igbo youths are responsible for insecurity in the region.

She maintained that criminal activities in the South-East required comprehensive investigations to establish the roles of suspected perpetrators, including non-state actors, as well as possible lapses by security agencies.

“I have always made it clear that the insecurity in the South-East might not be perpetrated by the freedom fighters, Biafra agitators and other people involved,” she said.

Chimezie added that the region’s security challenges appeared to involve multiple actors and could not be adequately addressed by attributing every kidnapping, killing and armed robbery to IPOB or ESN.

The IWA president questioned how gunmen could reportedly stop two buses and abduct more than 20 passengers despite the presence of military and police checkpoints along the route.

She challenged the police and military to investigate all credible leads and ensure that suspects were treated equally, irrespective of their ethnic or regional backgrounds.

Chimezie also alleged that security operations in the region had disproportionately targeted young Igbo men, with arrests sometimes carried out in communities following attacks without publicly established evidence linking those detained to the crimes.

She called for investigations into allegations of criminal activities involving some herders and other groups operating around South-East highways and rural communities, including reported attacks on farming communities.

According to her, such allegations deserved thorough investigation, particularly where reports of violence against villagers had preceded military operations against suspected ESN members.

The IWA president recalled her call in 2024 for the Federal Government to withdraw military deployments from the South-East, arguing that the proliferation of checkpoints had not delivered the desired improvement in security.

She further alleged that some military checkpoints had become avenues for extorting money from motorists, calling for a reassessment of existing security arrangements.

Chimezie urged South-East governors and community leaders to strengthen local vigilante groups and improve collaboration with security agencies, particularly in rural communities and along major highways.

She also faulted the media for what she described as inadequate national attention to security incidents in the region, urging news organisations to devote more resources to investigative reporting and court proceedings involving suspects, without ethnic or political bias.

She said the arraignment should prompt a wider review of the region’s security challenges, including the handling of kidnapping cases, the treatment of detained youths and the effectiveness of existing security deployments.

While insisting that no group should be shielded from investigation where evidence implicates its members, Chimezie cautioned against assigning blame before investigations were concluded.

She called on the Federal Government, South-East governors, police and military authorities to adopt a comprehensive security strategy to tackle kidnapping, killings and other violent crimes while protecting the rights of innocent residents.

In a related development, IPOB’s Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, said the arraignment of the suspects supported the group’s longstanding position that those responsible for insecurity in the South-East were not necessarily its members.

In a statement titled “We Are Vindicated,” Powerful questioned the tendency to attribute kidnappings and other crimes to IPOB and ESN before investigations establish the identities of the perpetrators.

He argued that, had the suspects not been apprehended, IPOB, ESN and Igbo youths might have been blamed for the abduction, potentially exposing innocent people to arrest and alleged mistreatment.

However, the identities of the suspects alone do not establish whether any particular group was involved or uninvolved in other security incidents in the region. The circumstances of the abduction and any alleged links to other actors remain matters for investigation and the courts.