RAPHAEL EDE writes on the current wave of insecurity in the South-East and governors lack of coordinated approach in fighting the menace
Not a few are of the view that the South-East governors have not done much to improve the standard of living of their people. In Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo state, security of lives and property have always been an issue the governors have not been able to tackle successfully. At present, killings, kidnappings, raping as well as the issue of ‘unknown gunmen’ nefarious activities have been a challenge to the people of the region.
In April 2016, Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State raised a dirge when armed Fulani herdsmen went into the rural town of Ukpabi, Nimbo in Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area of the state and slaughtered many villagers. The victims were sliced like yam tubers ready for cooking. Ugwuanyi could not hold his tears and cried himself hoarse.
The carnage elicited a lot of sad feeling in Enugu State, Igboland and many parts of Nigeria. Many had thought the governor and his colleagues in other states in the South-East zone would have done something but the incident came and went and nothing much was done.
It was when the Fulani mayhem continued in earnest, especially the abduction of Catholic priests that the South-East Governors’ Forum decided that bushes along the expressways should be cleared so that motorists would be able to see afar should kidnappers be lurking in the thickets. After the decision, it was Governor Ugwuanyi who was touched the most that rose to the occasion and began to clear the bushes along major expressways.
Many knew then that clearing the bushes along the expressways were mere palliatives and not a panacea to the rampaging kidnappers and ‘unknown gunmen’ at the time.
It was when the South-West leaders and governors met and formed their security outfit called Amotekun that the South governors and Igbo leaders, who had earlier appeared indecisive, agreed to set up forest guards to garrison the forest from where the devils seemed to have built their habitat from where they launch attacks on the people. The South-West governors led the way by decisively forming Amotekun when they felt the level of insecurity was becoming overwhelming to the police and other security agencies.
Prior to the establishment of Ebubeagu, the pro-Biafra group, the Indigenous People of Biafra, had set up the Eastern Security Network. The ESN had the mandate to clear Fulani herdsmen and other criminals from the forests so that farmers could return to their farms and others could move about unmolested in their own land.
Surprisingly, while the South-East governors announced the decision to form Ebubeagu security outfit, the implementation of such pronouncement became a herculean task as the governments in the five south-eastern states seemed to be working at cross-purposes.
Recall that the immediate past Anambra State Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, C-Don Adinuba, had told The PUNCH in April 2021 that though he had not been briefed on the Ebubeagu security outfit, the state was peaceful, especially with the presence of vigilance groups working “effectively” with the police to protect the people.
He said, “What is Ebubeagu? Do we need a central security arrangement to protect our state? Do we have Fulani bandits in any forest in Anambra State? So, what are we doing with Ebubeagu? Ebubeagu and Amotekun are all emotional things. Is Amotekun jointly financed by the governments in the South-West? So, we are not doing anything about Ebubeagu at the Assembly.”
However, with the formation of Ebubeagu, the insecurity in the geo-political zone continued, hence the governors met recently in Enugu, promising to rid the zone of crime by ensuring security operatives embarked on patrolling of major roads to forestall and check the rate of kidnapping taking place in recent time, especially in Enugu and Ebonyi states boundary communities.
But with the lack of a clear-cut solution to insecurity in the South East, the region’s governors’ forum currently appear to be in confusion especially with the new wave of insecurity.
The governors had met last week in Enugu State nearly one year after their last meeting in Owerri where they launched Ebubeagu. At the meeting, they resolved to form a 24-hour joint security patrols along major roads in the region as part of measures to stem growing insecurity ahead of the Yuletide. In their resolution after the meeting held at state Government House, the governors dismissed media reports that they were responsible for the creation of ESN, stressing that they only created Ebubeagu and Forest Guards.
Ebonyi State Governor/Chairman of South East Governors’ Forum, Chief David Umahi, who read the communiqué, decried the state of insecurity in the region, saying, “Our economic activities have come to a halt while kidnapping and wanton killings have become the order of the day. South-East governors call on the Federal Government to come to our aid in providing security in the zone bearing in mind that elections are around the corner. Meanwhile, South East governors have agreed to set up a 24-hour joint patrol in all major highways within the South-East, especially during the Christmas season.”
Curiously, on June 4, 2021, the Chairman, South-East Security Committee, Major General Obi Umahi (retd.) resigned from the position, citing lack of support. Obi Umahi is the elder brother to Governor Umahi, the Chairman of South-East Governors Forum.
The governor had on August 31, 2019, appointed Gen. Umahi as the chairman of the committee. The committee was charged with the responsibility of drafting a framework for the establishment of a South-East joint security outfit to cater for the security needs of the zone.
Although General Umahi’s had designed the security architecture for Ebubeagu, regrettably on June 4, 2021, he resigned from the committee. In his resignation letter titled, ‘Resignation as Chairman, South-East Security Committee – Ebubeagu’, and addressed to the chairman of the South-East Governors’ Forum disclosed that his committee was never funded and no office was provided for it.
The letter 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 SE 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 the South-East Governors’ Forum attended by the President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide and some other Igbo leaders. The committee decided that Ebubeagu should be jointly rolled out as a matter of urgency and also funded by the government of the five South-East states. From inception to date, South-East Security Committee was never funded at all in any capacity and not even an office space was provided.”
The last meeting of the governors was on October 5, 2021, when they had an emergency security meeting in Enugu. The meeting came few days after the gruesome murder of Dr Chile Akunyili, the husband of Dora Akunyili, former Director-General of the National Agency for Drug Administration and Control few days ahead of the Anambra governorship election.
No clear-cut focus
The thinking of many is that the South-East currently lacks effective leadership in tackling critical and multifarious issues facing the zone. It is believed that if the governors were serious enough, they would have found a solution to the worsening insecurity in the region. But they allowed politics to divide them and refused to fund the Gen. Umahi committee. The governors resorted to handling the formation of Ebubeagu security outfit individually, in fact, with different names and modes of operation
In Enugu, they call it Forest Guards/Neighbourhood Watch with poor training and funding. In Ebinyi, though they call it Ebubeagu, critics of Governor Umahi administration in the state are already calling for the disbandment of the group as they alleged that it was a tool used to terrorise opposition parties in the state. Anambra State runs Anambra Vigilante Services, which the current governor, Charles Soludo, has been effectively funding and they have begun to record serious gains. Abia State has Homeland Security outfit, while Imo calls hers Ebubeagu; both lack the original operational manual and therefore not too effective to tackle the ferocious insecurity in the region. At a point, the forum announced that they would jointly execute the construction of major highways interconnecting the states to boost economic activities in the region, but the pledge ended in the paper it was written as an item in a communiqué of their meeting.
Reacting to the development, the Director, Quality Assurance Unit, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Prof Oguejiofo Ujam, said governors must separate petty crimes from terrorism and other forms of felony to be able to tackle the menace of insecurity the region.
He said, “The governors should do the first thing by showing that they are serious about tackling the issue of insecurity in the zone. I do not know how much stakeholders’ input they have received on the subject matter, but the first thing they ought to do is to get experts to draw a technical scheme on the matter. Next to that is the need for a functional secretariat; the governors should move away from ad hoc knee-jerk spasmodic outbursts on the matter.
“By this, I mean the state chief executives should set up a panel of committed and trained intelligence officials to generate data and monitor flash points and develop dynamic strategies to tackle security in the region holistically. You must separate petty crimes from terrorism and other forms of felony to be able to tackle the menace.”
A criminologist and Board Chairman, International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, Mr Emeka Umeagbalasi, described the current set of South-East governors as the worst set of governors the South had ever produced. He said, “The problem is that there is no viable and people-oriented central government in Nigeria. If not, there ought to be a special judicial panel of enquiry at federal level to thoroughly look into the setting up, composition and activities of Ebubeagu’s death squad in the South-East.
“Southerners should be put in the know of who and who are members of Ebubeagu militias; are they truly of Igbo membership or a secret death squad set up for ethno-religious annihilation and funded secretly behind the scene? Governors of Imo and Ebonyi states are the brains behind the Ebubeagu experiment. The atrocities of the outfit have not gone unnoticed. The outfit has become a terror in the South-East. We pity governors of Anambra, Enugu and Abia states if they deceitfully join in the atrocious Ebubeagu experiment.
“Go to Imo and Ebonyi states and see what the governors and their governments are doing to their defenceless citizens and political opponents with their Ebubeagu killer militias. The governors should tell the south-easterners how many jihadist Fulani herdsmen have been arrested or flushed out from the region’s forests, farmlands and bushes since 2020?”
Also speaking, the former Dean Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Nigeria Nsukka, Prof Igwe Obasi, lambasted the governors, advising that Ndigbo should face their future with confidence without the present governors. The Professor of Political Science stated that the governors lacked the courage to protect their own because of corruption and their illegitimate means of achieving office.
He said, “From the word go, the Ebubeagu was a nonstarter designed to fail, and so it has done. There are allegations and issues of missing engineers, government-sponsored ‘IPOBs’ and ‘unknown gunmen, curious police station and INEC office fires and prison breaks, the mysterious killings of Ahmed Gulak and other souls from near and abroad, unhindered AK-47-bearing Fulani herdsmen kidnappings, murders, rapes and seizures on the highways, the existence of some Ebubeagu outfits with imported Miyetti Allah or non-Igbo personnel; in short, the general orchestration of insecurity in the East, with most of the fingers pointing at the Federal Government in collaboration with some governors against their peoples.
“So, of what use is an Ebubeagu that is supposed to be protecting the people, when the governments are already working hard against their own? Because of corruption and their illegitimate means of achieving office, almost all the five governors lack the courage to protect their own, with the two so-called Ebubeagu in Ebonyi and Imo states being mere instruments of vendetta against their people. They (governors) couldn’t do it (protection of their people) in the last seven and half years and cannot do so in the remaining six months.
“Imagine their fear of calling for Nnamdi Kanu’s immediate release in compliance with court orders, and instead belatedly reverting to a so-called political solution that had been transcended by the courts. The Igbo should face their future with confidence without the present governors.”
Allegation uncharitable – Umahi
Reacting, the Ebonyi State Governor, David Umahi, said the allegation that Ebebeagu, was being used as a tool for political victimisation in the state was uncharitable.
The governor’s Special Assistant on Media and Strategy, Chooks Okoh, in a telephone interview with Saturday PUNCH, said, “The allegation is as pathetic as it is uncharitable. Everybody living in the state knows that the presence of the vigilante group means a peaceful environment and tolerable crime rate.
“It is a pity that any action they take that some people believe does not sit well with them means intimidation by the governor. Why would he want to intimidate anybody? Ebubeagu is a legitimate creation of the law to complement the efforts of regular security agencies in the maintenance of law and order. Let us live within the law to avoid any brush with them.”
Also lending his voice to the matter, a former member of the House of Representatives, Dr Chukwuemeka Ujam, said every security was local and advised the governors to look inward in finding solution to the increased level of insecurity in the zone.
Ujam, who represented Nkanu East and Nkanu West Enugu Federal Constituency between 2015 and 2019, said, “Every crime is known locally; they should be able to fish out those that are the criminal elements, Ebubeagu or no Ebubeagu. They should take control of security of their respective states. It must be instructive that what works in another state may not work in the other state. Due to the common borders, they (governors) should meet regularly and be honest with themselves.”
Many analysts are wondering what the governors want President Buhari to do, seeing that the Federal Government itself has its hands full. Had the governors funded the General Umahi Security Committee and faithfully implemented the original blueprint for the setting up of Ebubeagu outfit, coupled with a possible release of Nnamdi Kanu, the insecurity in the region would have been at a manageable level.
- Additional report by Edward Nnachi
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