From whatever angle it is looked at and for whatever reasons, there is no justification for the emerging killing fields of the South East.
By Emeka Alex Duru
(08054103327, nwaukpala@yahoo.com)
The piece by a colleague, Casmir Igbokwe, on Monday, February 14, 2022, titled, “South East and the looming anarchy”, created substantial concern on developments in the region. He wrote on two Catholic priests (names withheld for security reasons) who were abducted at the boundary between Isuofia and Igbo-Ukwu in Aguata Local Government Area (LGA), Anambra State.
According to Igbokwe, the abductors initially did not find enough money in the bank accounts of the priests. But a hidden phone of one of the priests rang. The phone was linked to a school bank account where the priest was a school manager. The criminals checked it and discovered about N3.2 million in the account. The money was students’ school fees for the current term. Pronto, they transferred the entire money to an account which apparently belonged to one of them.
Satisfied, they released the priests about 1.00 AM at Umuoji in Idemili North LGA with a warning that the next few weeks would be terrible in the East because many youths now have guns.
Their warning is gory and ominous. True to their threat, the region has been dripping with the blood of innocent citizens and travellers from other parts of the country. Just as the hoodlums boasted of making the area uninhabitable, gunmen killed a traffic officer at Ekwulobia roundabout and about four other innocent people in different communities.
Some parts of Orlu, Imo State and Southern Senatorial District of Anambra, seem to be the hottest axis. In particular, the Ihiala-Azia-Orsumoghu-Lilu-Isseke route that dovetails into Orsu side of Imo, is now dangerous.
Presiding Justice of the Court of Appeal, Owerri Division, Hon. Justice Rita Pemu, was lucky to have escaped from suspected kidnappers on that axis, last Sunday, February 20.
A release by the Secretary, Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Owerri branch, Chinedu Agu, disclosed that Justice Pemu, while traveling to Owerri from Benin City, was kidnapped on the route at about 11am.
What saved her was that she was in a bus instead of her Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) and was dressed in a simple, Spartan and free-flowing gown that made the kidnappers mistake her as one of “oga’s stewards,”
Even at that, they kept demanding to know in which car their “oga” (boss) was. While she was marched into a thick forest, one of the kidnappers was said to be boasting that he would have wasted their oga if he was within reach.
“As his Lordship was marched into the bush like a death-destined sheep to the slaughter, gun shots and concomitant cries of anguish pervaded the bush, which heightened her apprehension.
“As the kidnappers backed out for his Lordship to continue the Golgotha walk into the depth of the bush, where perhaps she would face the doomed fate of others, she detoured and took safety elsewhere, and was hurried back to Orlu town in disguise from where she found her way into Owerri”, NBA stated.
Justice Pemu’s official cars, her Driver, her personal property inside the car were yet to be found by the time the report was made. Their fate could still be hanging on the balance.
While Justice Pemu was lucky to have escaped, a Port-Harcourt based businessman, Gab Ofoma, an indigene of Nnewi, Anambra state, was not that fortunate as he was felled by the blood thirsty hounds the same day. With his death, the fate of over 150 Nigerians under his employ, remains uncertain. Many have been wasted on that route lately. Riding on a good car and appearing well-fed are two considerations that give out one for extermination on that stretch.
In some parts of Orlu local government area, the situation is not funny. Reports of killings and other criminal activities are almost daily. Previously popular Okporo, Nkwo-Ito and Banana Junctions in the council, are now deadly spots where severed human heads and headless bodies are occasionally displayed by faceless goons. The sad story replicates in other parts of the zone.
To say the least, these stories are disgusting and run against the sanctity of blood underlined in the Igbo philosophy of “Mma-Ndu” (Mmadu), the spice of life. From whatever angle it is looked at and for whatever reasons, there is no justification for the emerging killing fields of the South East. The odious development is a clear aberration to what the Igbo represents. What the loose gangs parading in the zone are doing, amounts to self-immolation. The society and the people are the losers, ultimately.
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There is no reason for the South East to be associated with this bestiality. The entire stretch of the zone, still evokes memories of the Civil War, in terms of dilapidated infrastructure and absence of key federal projects. Most of the development initiatives in the area, are by individual and communal efforts.
Not given to living in pity, the people that were literally clobbered to the ground by the War, to borrow from legendary Prof Chinua Achebe, have, by fantastic burst of energy, been trying to overcome their handicap. That such commendable efforts are being frustrated by forces from the same area under whatever guise, is indeed, piteous and condemnable.
Since the mismanagement of the 2020 #EndSars# Protests across the country, the South East has become a hotbed for arson, destruction of public assets and lately, a metaphor for attacks on individuals and security agents. This is a dangerous trend that must be called out.
In 2016, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) rated the South East the most human security secure geopolitical zone in Nigeria, in its national human development report. No organisation worth its name, would hold similar opinion of the area, now. If anything rather, the zone has lost its ambience; the traditional serene environment that had enabled its people put their spirit of industry and enterprise at work. It is that bad!
Every Nigerian of good conscience must stand up in condemnation of the gradual but steady destruction of the South East. It will be dangerous for the federal authorities to stand aloof while the area burns. When Boko Haram launched its campaigns in 2009 in the North East, it started this way, before widening its murderous engagements to other parts of the country.
South East political leaders must also assume their constitutional responsibilities of providing good governance to the people. The impression out there, is that they are working for themselves, helping themselves with the resources of the region while leaving the people in the lurch. They are largely seen as strangers, hopping into the states and dashing out as it suits them. Relocating their families to comfort zones of Abuja and abroad, is also not the way out. That is being clever by half.
Governance in most states in the South East, is at best, on pages of the newspapers but essentially on recess. There is not much on ground, to give the people hope. This cannot be the way to go. The indigenes ad residents deserve more than what they are getting from their leaders.
There is need to engage the youths of the zone for a lasting solution to the uncertainties in the region. The ugly situation in the South East must be addressed to save the zone from its present sorry state.