By Tony Adibe
A civil society group, operating under the banner of Civil Society Committee for Anti-Fraud Election Security (CISCAES) has appealed to the entire people of the Southeast Zone of Nigeria to troop out in their numbers during the upcoming general elections to vote for their preferred candidates.
Also, the group equally expressed worry and sadness over the “high level of current insecurity in Ebonyi State occasioned by the state Governor, Engr. David Umahi”, accusing him of manipulating the outlawed Ebubeagu security outfit “to intimidate and harass the citizenry and political opponents.”
Briefing journalists in Enugu on Monday at a national press conference tagged, “A Critical Media Briefing and National Press Conference on the Worrisome State of Insecurity in Ebonyi State and its Dangerous Consequences Before, During and After the 2023 General Elections,” the National Coordinator of CISCAES, Comrade Kennedy Iyere, described Gov. Umahi as a dictator and emperor in the mould of the late Libyan Leader, Muammar Al Ghahdafi, “who would brook no opposition.”
The media briefing was attended by various Civil Society groups and members of Transition Monitoring Group, (TMG). Comrade Iyere alleged that Umahi “is bent on imposing a candidate of his choice on Ebonyians using the outlawed Ebubeagu security outfit in the forthcoming elections.
According to him, despite the fact that a high court disbanded the Ebubeagu, Umahi quickly recruited the same group made up of people from various states including the Northerners to terrorize and harass the opposition.
The human rights groups, who also accused the Governor of “building a terror group or militia” in Ebonyi State, said that Ebonyi State “is now highly volatile.”
Describing Ebonyi State as the worst insecure state in the entire Southeast Zone, Iyere said that even the church in the state “is highly politicized and the leaders are even afraid to make statement for the fear of the governor’s action,” adding: ” The fear of Ebubeagu militia is the beginning of wisdom in Ebonyi State”
However, an indigine of Ebonyi State, and the coordinator of one of the Rights Groups, who was physically present during the press conference, Barrister Iduma O. Iduma was quick to disagree with Comrade Iyere using the rumoured insecurity in Ebonyi State as reference point or case study in security challenges either in the southeast zone or the entire country.
“I vehemently disagree with you. Ebonyi State is not as you are painting it. There’s nothing that is happening in Ebonyi State that is not happening in other states. There’s insecurity in Abia, Anambra, Imo and other states in the southeast and indeed, in the country. Why are you using Ebonyi as reference point? I disagree with you. I find it unacceptable,” said, Iduma, who retired as radio broadcast journalist from the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN). He declined to speak further on Ebubeagu.
Iduma said that the Ebubeagu Security outfit was a creation of the law made by the Ebonyi State House of Assembly. He said that since Ebubeagu was backed up by the law of the state, it was unfair and wrong for Comrade Iyere to describe it in the rather unmeasured language he used.
But Comrade Iyere further claimed that Governor Umahi “has made himself an emperor and a supreme leader. He wants to impose a candidate on the people by all means.”
He said that before now, Umahi used to be his friend but currently has changed and has made Ebonyi a terror zone. He recalled how he narrowly escaped death from a hotel in Ebonyi State from the hands of the Umahi killer squad called Ebubeagu.
The human rights defender added that the terror gang that came to his hotel room “warned him to quickly leave the state quietly and never to come again,” claiming that they spared his life because of his personality. Iyere claimed that he had reported the threat to the security agencies in the state, apart from sending petitions to international organizations on the insecurity in the state.
He said that he had gone round all the five states in the Southeast Zone but never in any of them did he “witness such high rate of insecurity as is the case in Ebonyi,” where no hotel would allow a press conference of that nature to take place for fear that the establishment would be closed down by the state government.
The Human Rights Activist, however, called on the Federal Government to beam its searchlight on the activities of the Ebubeagu in Ebonyi State with a view to ensuring a peaceful, hitch-free general polls.
