….Laments alleged rape, extortion, extrajudicial killings
The Rule Of Law And Accountability Advocacy Center (RULAAC), is seriously concerned about the rampant incidence of invasion and siege on communities in Orlu and environs and other communities in Imo state by a group of rampaging armed men said to be members of ‘EbebeAgu Security Outfit’ allegedly set up by the Governor of Imo State ostensibly to combat unknown gunmen. They operate in a convoy of vehicles provided by the state governor.
According to RULAAC executive director, Okechukwu Nwangunma, there are videos of several incidents depicting acts of savagery by these bloodthirsty armed men who mainly target young people. They carry out random arrests and invasive bodily checks on the young men for body marks and tattoos. Ones they see any mark on any young man, he’s automatically labeled IPOB and taken away and may never be seen again alive.
The Police Act 2020 prohibits profiling and arrest of persons based only on their looks, hairstyle or bodily marks.
HARVESTING OF VICTIMS” BODY PARTS
There have been unverified but widespread reports of harvesting of body parts of some of the victims and burning of their remains beyond recognition.
Some are allegedly brutalised and asked to transfer money in exchange for not being killed.
Young women are allegedly seized, taken to bush paths or inside their vehicles and gang-raped and asked to thank God that they were not killed.
In some cases, these Ebubeagu operatives are said to carry out joint operations with Police, Civil Defence, Military and DSS operatives. Some people arrested during such joint operations have been traced to the Tiger Base office of the IRT in Owerri Imo State. Torture, killing and extortion have been reported.
Young men are arrested at random, taken into custody, tortured and disappeared. In few cases, lucky ones are extorted of huge sums of money and released.
This siege has forced young people – mainly teenagers and youth – to flee their communities leaving only old women and men and children.
In a recent video that was shared with RULAAC from different sources, a family in Okporo Orlu was on 16th Of June, 2022, allegedly invaded by so called Ebubeagu Security outfit in search of youth in the village and they ended up shooting everybody in sight in the compound including the elderly men, leaving several of them in the pool of their blood. Why would somebody shoot elderly people in the name of security?
Our preliminary findings reveal that a lot of militant elements without training were handed guns to go after the ‘unknown gunmen’. Their only qualifications may have been the fact that they have been shooting in the underworld. Else, nothing justifies or even rationalises the terror being unleashed on the civilian population in Orlu by men who are not by law authorised to bear assault rifles!
The unknown gunmen seem to have gone underground, now they are feasting on soft targets – assaulting, intimidating, extorting and making a bad situation worse!
Their activities have become too egregious and inhuman to condone, and the outrage too loud to ignore.
We are therefore concerned that despite the outcry by members of the affected communities, security agencies in the state appear helpless while the governor who set up this outfit and to whom alone they report stands aloof as a whole youth population in Orlu and environs are being decimated.
Whatever may be the explanation for this siege cannot be in interest of public safety and security.
APPEAL TO BUHARI
RULAAC calls on President Muhammadu Buhari in his capacity as the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and as the ultimate Constitutional authority in control of security in Nigeria to intervene decisively in aid of these communities affected by insecurity.
