By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Amnesty International says it has amassed evidence in the South East – particularly in Imo, Anambra, and Abia States – that paints a damning picture of ruthless excessive force by police and soldiers who simply pick up people and kill them.
“We’ll talk to them in the language that they understand. We’ll organise the police and the military to pursue them,” Muhammadu Buhari boasted on Arise Television on June 10.
And Amnesty says after killing 115 suspected members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), security forces ordered by Buhari randomly pick people up from their homes who have nothing to do with attacks on police stations – with some tortured.
The BBC reports that Amnesty says Nigerian security forces have killed dozens of people during operations against separatists in the South East after Abuja accused IPOB of attacking police stations killing dozens of officers.
In the last four years, many young Igbo men have been forced into hiding for fear of being labelled IPOB, a tag that in most cases ends badly for the individual so labelled. The double down started in 2017 with the military attack on Afaraukwu, the hometown of Nnamdi Kanu where at least 30 persons were killed.
Subsequently, the military started ransacking people’s homes in search of IPOB members in the South East and that led to an attack on Eziama Onitcha Ezinihitte Mbaise town in Imo State on the pretext that it was an IPOB’s safe haven. Ihediohanma Christopher Ugochukwu was lucky to escape after troops from Obinze Barracks came calling, but many other young men were rounded up, he told TheNiche from hiding.
The BBC adds that there is a danger that the federal government’s response to IPOB could fuel resentment and anger and lead to yet more violence in the South East.
Troops acting on Buhari’s orders
Even before Buhari boasted on national television on June 10, he had earlier this year ordered troops to kill youths in the South East suspected to be IPOB members whom he alleged attacked police stations and killed officers.
Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, who invited the military, has insisted repeatedly that unknown gunmen carried out the attacks, not IPOB activists.
In June, his Chief Press Secretary, Oguwike Nwachuku, said in a statement that no fewer than 400 people who carried out recent attacks in Imo had been arrested and charged to court.
“The good thing is that over 70 per cent of them are not Igbo,” he explained.
Uzodimma openly disagrees with IPOB, so he was not defending the secessionists but only stating the facts.
Buhari’s utterances against Igbos
“Many of those misbehaving today are too young to be aware of the destruction and loss of lives that occurred during the Nigerian Civil War.
“Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand,” Buhari tweeted on June 1.
Buhari was a Lieutenant in the army during the Civil War and he keeps on boasting that he fought in battle. Olusegun Obasanjo was a Colonel then, and also fought in the war, but does not boast it.
Twitter removed Buhari’s tweet on June for violating its rules. In reaction, Buhari banned Twitter on June 4.
He doubled down on his hatred for the Igbos on Arise Television on June 10 by saying: “That IPOB is just like a dot in a circle. Even if they want to exit, they will have no access to anywhere.
“And the way they are spread all over the country, having businesses and properties, I don’t think IPOB knows what they are talking about.
“In any case, we say we’ll talk to them in the language that they understand. We’ll organise the police and the military to pursue them.”
On Buhari’s orders, Nigerian security agents broke international law when they kidnapped Kanu in Nairobi, Kenya on June 27 and brought him to Abuja where he has since been detained to continue his court trial for treason.
He is being held by the Department of State Services (DSS) for advocating a separate country for the Igbos because of their mistreatment in Nigeria.
On Buhari’s orders, many young Igbo men have fled their homes like Ugochukwu and can only communicate with their loved ones from hiding.
Buhari is also pressing to extradite from Benin Republic Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho, for agitating for a Yoruba nation carved out of Nigeria’s South West because Fulani herdsmen attack his people with impunity.
He wants Igboho to join Kanu in DSS gulag.
On Buhari’s orders, heavily armed DSS personnel had invaded Igboho’s residence in Ibadan on July 1 and riddled the building with bullets in their desperation to kill him. They could not get him but killed two of his aides and arrested 12 others.
After five weeks in DSS custody, the 12 aides were granted court bail on August 4 in bonds ranging between N5 million and N10 million with two sureties each.
‘You can’t detain Kanu and Igboho while protecting Fulani murderers’, Nigerians tell Buhari
Activists have risen valiantly to tell Buhari that he cannot detain Kanu and Igboho while protecting and appeasing his fellow Fulani who murder citizens in the North, a jihadist war zone where no one is safe.
“Buhari is clearly more concerned and acting very swiftly about those clamouring for secession than he is about insecurity and poverty in the country,” @ikennakris wrote last month on Twitter which Nigerians still use through Virtual Private Network (VPN).
“The resource and intelligence the FG have, If they channel it into insurgency, Bandits would have no place to hide in this country.
“They can go as far as fishing out Nnamdi Kanu and Sunday Igboho from different countries but can’t fish out bandits in theirs. God help us,” @sarcasm_presh added on Twitter.
There is no crime Buhari has accused Kanu and Igboho of committing in the South which terrorists are not doing worse in the North, where the jihadists prevent farmers from cultivating crops and murder law-abiding citizens with impunity.
Here are examples in the past three weeks:
July 14
Up to 1,009 Boko Haram murderers, who had been in military custody at Giwa Barracks in Maiduguri, were released without court trial.
They were handed over to the Borno State government in a secret ceremony initially billed to take place at an earlier date but was suspended indefinitely by the military authorities in the wake of the appointment of a new Chief of Army Staff.
Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) accused Buhari of doing injustice and demanded his impeachment for releasing the terrorists while locking up Kanu.
July 16
The army announced that the terrorists murdered Hassan Ahmed, a Major General and Director at Army Headquarters, Abuja.
The army said Ahmed, a former Provost of Marshall of the Nigerian Army, was travelling on the Lokoja-Abuja Road when his vehicle was attacked by gunmen around Abaji area council on July 15.
A source close to the family confirmed to Daily Post that the assassins kidnapped Ahmed’s sister, Safina, who was initially mistaken for his wife.
July 18
The Nigerian Air Force announced that one of its alpha jet aircraft used for attacks against armed men crashed in the North West “under intense enemy fire” from terrorists.
There was no casualty as the pilot ejected and escaped enemy fire.
“On 18 July 2021, at about 12.45 pm, a Nigerian Air Force (NAF) Alpha Jet aircraft, returning from a successful air interdiction mission between the boundaries of Zamfara and Kaduna State, came under intense enemy fire which led to its crash in Zamfara State,” Air Force spokesman Edward Gabkwet said in a statement.
This brings to at least four the number of air crashes involving Nigerian military planes in seven months.
July 18
The police announced that 13 officers were killed during an operation to repel an attack by bandits in Kurar Mota village in Zamfara State.
State police spokesperson Muhammad Shehu confirmed in a statement that the officers paid the supreme price and many bandits were also killed.
“The attack occurred on Sunday at about 1230hrs, when Police Mobile operatives deployed at Kurar Mota village in Bungudu LGA were responding to a distress call with regards to an attempt by bandits to attack some nearby communities,” Shehu said.
August 3
Islamist jihadists released video of some of their captives, believed to be kidnapped Kaduna students, using cruel torture technique to fastrack negotiation for ransome for their release.
The terrorists, who say they hate Western education, routinely raid schools in the North, especially in Kaduna, taking captives unchallenged, leaving normally talkative Governor Nasir el-Rufai speechless.
In the video, which many say they couldn’t watch beyond five seconds because it is gruesome and too graphic, the terrorists used the worst kind of torture that made Adolf Hitler appeared lenient.
They stripped their captives naked, forced them to lie face down, and cut their bodies with knives. It was difficult to hold tears after watching the horrific scene.
All of these incidents occurred in three past weeks alone. Thousands of others have been killed by terrorists in the North since they began their Islamist jihad in 2009.
Buhari has not tried in court or jailed any Northern terrorist since he became President in 2015. Nor does he aggressively go after them as he does Southern agitators.
Catholic bishops criticise Buhari’s selective justice
Catholic bishops have criticised selective justice being practised by Muhammadu which they say entrenches ethnicity, bad governance, and rubbishes the image of Nigeria on the world stage.
They said insecurity is rife in the land because the federal government fails to arrest, prosecute, and jail criminals to deter them from wreaking havoc.
Catholic Bishops of Ibadan Ecclesiastical Province – comprising Ibadan Archdiocese, Ilorin, Ondo, Oyo, Ekiti, and Osogbo Dioceses – made the point in a communiqué issued after meeting at the Domus Pacis Pastoral Institute in Igoba, Akure
The communiqué was signed by Province Chairman Rev. Gabriel Abegunrin and Secretary Rev. Gabriel Abegunrin.
It was issued on July 22, about 10 weeks after the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) asked the National Assembly (NASS) to expunge from the Constitution all references to Sharia Islamic law.
The CBCN also urged the lawmakers to project Nigeria’s secular status as in Sections 10 and 38 of the Constitution, noting that no religion is recognised in the Constitution except Islam.
In the latest communique, the bishops lamented that Nigeria under Buhari’s watch has lost its soul and that insecurity, dwindling economy, corruption, and other ills are indices of a failed country needing urgent revival.
They knocked Buhari for insulting the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Rev. Matthew Kukah, for giving testimony to the United States Congress about Nigeria.
Kukah made patriotic and commendable points with verifiable data on the persecution of Nigerians, the bishops insisted.
The communiqué reads in part:
“Nigeria, our country, seems to have lost its very soul because it is no longer a healthy entity. The good health of any nation consists in its capacity to offer its citizens a territory where they can feel at home, feel secure and enjoy the necessities of life.
“This, unfortunately, is no longer the case in our dear country, Nigeria, where, armed conflicts, armed robbery, kidnapping for ransom, insurgency, banditry and extrajudicial killing persist as the order of the day.
“When a nation loses its soul, its people lose the cohesive elements of human relationships.
“A nation that has lost its soul is characterised by inept, uncaring leadership which functions by selective allocation of posts, privileges and resources and by selective application of justice.
“It is characterised by leaders who, rather than care for the citizens of the country, simply exploit and denigrate them ….
“Kukah, in his patriotic and frank presentation, called attention to some verifiable data and statistics about the Nigerian situation on that privileged international platform.
“He spoke for authentic Christians and Muslims who are under persecution. No doubt, he intended to solicit the support of that forum which many Nigerians believe holds the promise of some assistance and relief from our current national crises.
“The Federal Government, however, has characteristically gone up in arms against the person of … Kukah and his purpose.
“It is commonly said that when there is a problem in a democracy, more democracy is needed to solve it. Sadly enough, our current federal government does not seem to subscribe to this.
“For the sake of our democracy, that right, exercised with responsibility, must be protected.
“We support … Kukah in his effort to unveil the truth about the Nigerian situation to ameliorate things. We call on the Federal Government to learn not to see criticism as an attack or a crime.”
