When members of the Southeast Governors Forum rose from their meeting in Enugu on Sunday October 30, this year, where they agreed to form a 24- hour joint security patrol to traverse the length and breadth of the region, not many took the resolution with seriousness.
It was so basically because, since 2017 when the Ebonyi State governor, Dave Umahi took over the leadership of the body, no decision reached, either in Enugu or elsewhere had been implemented. Insecurity remains a challenge for the people of the region. And while the rest of the country prepares for this yuletide, many residents across the zone may not have the opportunity of celebrating with their loved ones, apparently because there is no home to return to or the fear for being killed or kidnapped.
Almost two months after the last meeting of the governors, insecurity has festered, even as there is nothing on ground to indicate that it could abate soon. Those who took the resolution from the last governors meeting with a pinch of salt appear to have been vindicated. Nothing has happened to show that the governors are committed to their vow to protect their people. Insecurity has continued to cripple economic and social activities with increasing pains on the residents.
Against all odds, when some residents appear to have forgotten about their previous commitments, the forum Chairman, Umahi on the stated date rallied his colleagues for the meeting. The decision to hold the meeting, The Guardian gathered, followed several attacks on security check points that led to the killings of security personnel and their arms taken away, as well as rampant kidnapping along various highways in the region by some unknown gunmen and persons parading as herdsmen.
Until then, the meeting had been abandoned for the past one year. Umahi, who is still the chairman of the forum, had not called a meeting because he was involved in his botched pursuits for the presidential ticket of All Progressives Congress (APC). The other governors of Enugu and Abia states, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi and Okezie Ikpeazu were also busy pursuing Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senatorial tickets, as well as helping their River State counterpart, Nyesom Wike to take his pound of flesh on the party. Imo and Anambra State governors who are the latest governors in the zone to join the group could not do otherwise.
However, since that surprise meeting, guns loaded with bullets being wielded by hoodlums who masquerade either as unknown gunmen or Fulani herdsmen have continued to boom; they are freely deployed to kill, dispossess or kidnap residents for a ransom. After that meeting, a former Commissioner in Enugu State, Gab Onwuzuruike and his brother who were returning from a burial ceremony were killed. Kidnapping along the Ugwuogo/Opi road in Enugu increased. It took the abduction of the former secretary to the government of Enugu State, Dan Shere and returning students of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) for the Enugu State government to improve security on the said road with increased security checkpoints and patrols.
In two deadly strikes that occurred last month and last week, several persons were killed in Igboeze north and in Eha-Amafu in Isiuzo local governments of Enugu State. Persons suspected to be herdsmen, who invaded the area in their numbers, fired the bullets that killed them. Natives claimed no fewer than 23 lives were lost during the attacks just as the once bubbling Eha-Amafu has become a ghost town due to incessant attacks on the community.
Members of Enugu State House of Assembly on Tuesday December 13 raised the alarm over deteriorating security of the state, stressing that: “Enugu is under siege.”
In a motion for urgent public importance moved by the member representing Oji River State Constituency, Jeff Mbah, at their plenary on Tuesday, the House asked Ugwuanyi to set up and equip joint military, Police, Forest Guard and Neighbourhood Watch to tackle the menace.
Mbah recounted incidences of violent crimes that were committed in various communities in recent time, especially the gruesome murder of a former Commissioner, Gab Onuzulike and his brother at Oji River.
He said: “The surge in insecurity in Enugu State has called for urgent and decisive action. Unfortunately, notwithstanding the known enormous hard earned resources that His Excellency, the Governor of Enugu State has applied to ensure the safety of the lives and properties of the good people of Enugu State, the unthinkable continues to happen.
“The recent gruesome murder of the former Commissioner of Rural Development, Enugu State, Hon. Ozo Gab Onuzulike in Oji River alongside his elder brother, the killings in Igbo-Eze North and Isi Uzo Local Council are umpteenth times in such reports.
“If nothing drastic is done, there is every tendency that the fear of insecurity might deter many from coming home for Christmas and New Year and even to engage in other social activities without molestation.”
Ebonyi, Imo, Anambra states are not spared. Several communities, including Urualla in Imo State, Nkalagu in Ebonyi State have been attacked with businesses closed. Last week, Nnamdi Kanu’s Special Counsel, Aloy Ejimakor lamented how armed men attacked his hometown, Urualla in Ideato North Local Government Area of Imo State.
Ejimakor, who also shared a video of a market that was set ablaze added that the armed men attacked his kinsmen and vanished with their property, adding that, it was a day “that will forever live in infamy.”
Since the meeting was concluded, hoodlums in the guise of enforcers of sit at home and unknown gunmen have attacked and snuffed lives out of residents. Several targets, including offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) have been set ablaze. The latest attacks on INEC facilities occurred this week in Imo State. This is the challenge that is fast crippling the region.
While these festered, a bolt away group from IPOB led by Simeon Ekpa last week ordered five days sit-at-home in the region beginning from Friday December 9. Ekpa’s reasoning was that the order would prepare residents on the impending plot to boycott the 2023 general elections.
While several groups rose in condemnation of the order and asked residents about their normal activities, this however, did not fail to claim its casualties. On Saturday December 10 in Enugu for instance, three persons including a pregnant woman were killed while alleged enforcers of Ekpa’s order burned a police patrol van. These were innocent residents who went about their businesses on that day.
It was a similar situation in Imo State where the gunmen attacked and killed some police officers and set the INEC offices on fire.
The last meeting of the southeast governors in Enugu was not the first time the governors of the zone were meeting over insecurity in the region. They had done so in 2016, shortly after Ukpabi –Nimbo in Uzo Uwani Local Council was attacked by gunmen, who invaded the area in the early hours of the day. The gunmen killed several people, forcing Ugwuanyi who went to the scene to shed tears.
Although several promises on how to ensure that the incident did not repeat or escalate to other areas were made, most of the promises were not implemented. Soon after the incident, Umahi took over the leadership of the group. One of the decisions they took in their meeting was to ensure a Joint Security Patrol with Police Helicopters in the region, as well as the clearing of bushes around the highways located in the region. They were to also set up the Forest Guards in the various local governments that would operate in the bushes to prevent further kidnapping and raping of women in their farms, as well as strengthen the Neighborhood Watch organisations where available.
While Ugwuanyi and Umahi abided by the clause of clearing the bushes, this was not the case with other states, especially those who believed their Vigilante and Neighbourhood Watch groups were in full swing. The Forest Guards that were hurriedly set up also suffered poor funding and management issues and as such failed to perform.
When the hoodlums changed strategy and began to kidnap Catholic Priests, the governors met again and decided to form a joint security outfit to be named “Ebubeagu.” The outfit was supposed to take the shape and nomenclature of the Amotekun in the Southwest and should serve the entire region. Governor Umahi’s brother, a retired Army General, Obi Umahi was appointed to head the Ebubeagu Security outfit and outline its operational guidelines. The committee, indeed, began work and took far-reaching decisions.
But on June 4, 2021 Obi Umahi resigned his appointment. In the resignation letter he addressed to the forum Chairman, he disclosed that his Committee was never funded nor was an office space provided for them throughout his duration.
The letter he sent read in part: “Since this Security Committee was formed, we deliberated and agreed on ways to raise security consciousness down to the community level in Igboland, mode of operations, logistics and some types of equipment required, such as drones, vehicles, etc. We also crafted the concept of South East Security.
“The SE Security Committee thoroughly prepared and submitted the modalities, including the structure, for the take off of EBUBEAGU to the Governors’ Forum during the security meeting of South East Governors’ Forum, attended by the President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, and other Igbo leaders presented a request that Ebubeagu should be jointly rolled out as a matter of urgency and funded by the government of the five southeast states. From inception to date, the SE Security Committee was never funded at all in any capacity and not even an office space was provided. Please be assured of my loyalty, respect and accept my highest regards of your esteemed considerations.”
The resignation of Umahi signaled the end to the dream to set up Ebubeagu security jointly in the zone. Rather, the governors individually, like Umahi and Hope Uzodimma of Imo State began adhoc arrangements that enabled them set up Ebubeagu in their states and run them as offshoots of their governments. Presently stories are being spread on how the outfits are being used to hound political opponents of governors, as well as coercing people to support their governments.
In states where the Ebubeagu exists, its members have also continued to clash with operatives of the Eastern Security Network (ESN) set up by the Nnamdi Kanu-led Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), just as calls have heightened for their disbandment wherever they are found.
An official of the Civil Rights Concern in the southeast, Eze Cajetan told The Guardian that the region was “undergoing a not-too good encounter that may hunt it for a long time.”
Decrying the responses of the governors of the zone to the development, he stated that it was regrettable that, “they don’t feel concerned about life and property of their people that have been lost to the ugly incidents. They are insensitive, they are not representing the people, and they are only after the welfare of their brothers and sisters. Where have they kept all the money they have received as security votes? It is a tragedy and I think they should apologise to the people”
On what could be done, a member of the Enugu State House of Assembly, representing Nkanu West Constituency, Iloabuchi Aniagu suggested that: “Everyone should arm himself.”
Aniagu condemned the mopping up of arms, saying that instead, the wealthy ones should procure more arms for the less privileged to tackle the insecurity head on.
What we are into is more than speaking grammar; we are in serious trouble. We need to talk to our people. We need to protect ourselves. Enugu is under siege. God is no longer protecting us. We should give our people arms to protect themselves,” he said.
He also noted that many hoodlums are hiding under the IPOB to cause havoc in the land and should not be allowed unchallenged.
