Rights group laments killings in South-East 

The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), yesterday, painted a graphic, chilling and shocking picture of the killing of innocent persons in the South East in the hands of armed state actors and non-state actors.

The rights group said that research it carried out recently showed that security forces, including police crack squads, military, secret police, sub-state actor killer vigilantes and killer government taskforce have laid siege on South East, terrorising the people since August 2015.

Addressed a press briefing in Enugu through its officials, the group stated that another report, The Human Rights Made in Nigeria, a compilation of relevant and available local, regional and human rights groups, also detailed similar killings of innocent civilians and destruction of property by state and non-state actors in the region.

The group stressed that aside from the killings, tens of thousands of others were unlawfully detained and tortured, blindfolded or face-bagged and bundled at night from the East and dumped in secret locations and prisons outside the South East.

Similarly, during the period under review, the group said several Igbo communities were razed, civilian houses razed, 180,000 displaced, one million people frightened and forced to abandon their homes and flee, billions of naira worth of properties belonging to defenceless civilians lost to military burnings.

“It is very important to clarify that the above enumerated ‘outside the law’ killings and property violence in Eastern Nigeria did not include the death of violently and offensively armed members of non-state actors, criminal entities, members of the armed opposition groups and members of the drafted Nigerian security forces, who died in gun duels or exchange of gunfire; technically and internationally referred to as ‘battlefield casualties,” the group stated.