By Tony Adibe
The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) has strongly called for international criminal inquiries and indictments in Imo State due to what it regarded as gruesome killings of unarmed civilians and the burning down of peoples’ houses in the guise of fighting criminal elements.
Intersociety, a leading Nigeria’s human rights, rule of law and democracy research and investigative organization, emphasised that the criminal enquiries under demand are extremely necessary for purpose of unmasking the real identities of those that “killed, abducted, disappeared, arbitrarily arrested/detained and tortured; those that aided, abetted and omitted to act to stop the killings, abductions, disappearances and torture; those that were killed, abducted, tortured and disappeared.”
At a press conference held in Enugu on Sunday, during when Chairman of Intersociety Board, Emeka Umeagbalasi read out a 36-page document which, he said, chronicled the killings of unarmed civilians within 29 months – spanning January 2021 to May 2023 in Imo State, Intersociety said that its investigation and research showed that not less than 1,600 unarmed civilians have been.
The document is entitled, “In 29 Months (January 2021-May 2023) Under Gov Hope Uzodimma In Imo: Security Forces And Allied Militias Killed 900 Unarmed Citizens, Wounded 700, Arrested 3,500, Extorted 1,400, Disappeared 300, Burned Down 1,200 Civilian Houses, Displaced Their 30,000 Owners And Forced 500,000 Citizens in Active Age-Brackets to Flee to Escape Being Shot And Killed or Abducted And Disappeared in Security Custody.”
He said that 1,500 of the arrested 3,500 unarmed citizens in Imo State in the past 29 months or from January 2021 to May 2023 are still being detained in various security, defense and policing detention facilities within and outside the state.
He said that the victims include those held in Imo and Abuja DSS detention facilities and other detention facilities manned by 34 Brigade, Obinze, near Owerri and other military formations within and outside Imo State, Nigeria Police Force, and its crack squads’ formations within and outside Imo State and the Ebubeagu Government militias.
He said that out of the detained 1,500 unarmed citizens, estimated 300 are being held under “awaiting trial” in various Correctional Centres or prisons within and outside Imo State. The remaining 1,200, he said, are arbitrarily held in various detention facilities manned by the above-named security, defense and policing establishments including estimated 900 held within Imo and 300 others held outside the state.
Umeagbalasi said that the remaining 1,400 of the arrested 3,500 unarmed citizens are those mindlessly extorted and freed by various detaining authorities, during when “each of the freed detainees coughed out not less than N300,000 and above to regain his or her freedom.”
He said that in other words, criminal ‘bail fees’ imposed and forcefully collected from each of the “freed” detainees ranged from N300,000, N500,000, N1 million to N5million.
Umeagbalasi said that 95% of the arrested 3,500 unarmed citizens were arrested under class criminalization and false labeling of “being seriously involved in Biafra matters.”
He said: “In the whole, 1,500 of the arbitrarily arrested 3,500 unarmed citizens are in Imo State since January 2021 are still in detention, 600 killed (including 300 killed without traces or permanently disappeared in detention and 300 killed with traces in detention) and 1,400 others freed under mindless extortion.”
According to Intersociety, the Nigeria Police Force is the most atrocious and its crack squads involved include Intelligence Response Teams (IRT), Special Tactical Squads (STS), Anti Terrorism, Anti Kidnapping, Anti Cultism, Rapid Response Squads (RRS), Special Weapons and Tactical Teams (SWAT) and the Anti Robbery Squads of the Imo State Police Command.
Besides criminal investigation, indictments and prosecutions of the leading perpetrators, Intersociety is also demanding that Visa ban should be placed on them, adding that they should be “barred from all forms of international career, professional and private engagements, particularly in the USA,UK, EU, Germany, France, Australia, Canada, and SouthEast Asia and so on for their involvement in grisly and egregious rights abuses and violations in Imo State in particular and the Southeast zone in general.”
He called on the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland and New York, USA to intervene.
