Deputy Editor, SAM NWAOKO, examines the continued violence especially against police formations and other Federal Government institutions in the South-East and its implications in the big picture of 2023 politics.
The security trend in the South-East zone of the country has remained a source of worry to the people of the region, their leaders and Nigerians outside the area. The zone was known for many things but the kind of security situation which has turned the colour of the people’s problems to figurative Crimson. Before the advent of the now recurring attacks on police divisions, stations and even commands, and the killings of personnel, the security problem in most states in the South-East was the same as in most other states of other regions: bandits and herders with their unrestrained destruction of life and property, especially crop farms.
According to reports, quite a number of offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the zone have been either vandalised or razed lately. Many have been killed either in the hands of “unknown gunmen” or during confrontation with state law enforcement agents, with the attendant climate of fear and uncertainty in the geopolitical zone. With the heavy security deployment under the new security arrangement by the federal authorities, the zone appears to be under siege, with sporadic attacks characteristic of a guerrilla warfare.
Last year, shortly after some of gladiators in the region began to show their fighting hand in what some observers referred to as “a calculated move towards the 2023 presidency,” the discordant tunes in the region became louder. It started in Imo State with the controversial Supreme Court judgement which declared Senator. Hope Uzodimma as the duly elected governor of the state. The unsettling judgement, on 14 January was still on the lips of the people and Nigerians when the Ebonyi State governor, Chief Dave Umahi, abandoned his traditional political home in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the governing All Progressives Congress (APC).
These issues, coupled with the eternal cry of marginalisation of the South East by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration were among the main issues of 2020 politics in the region. Also, a large proportion of the people of the region are still smarting from the proscription and banning of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) led by Mr. Nnamdi Kanu. The declaration of the group as a terrorist organisation by the Federal Government was like adding salt on the injury and a serious wound on their emotions. Clampdown on members of IPOB and the unending military operations in the region further alienated them from whatever joy the Buhari administration offered. The people have always felt that the Federal Government is unfairly treating them, especially when they compare the numerous military operations in the region to what obtains in other zones of the country, especially the northern region, where banditry, terrorism and Boko Haram hold sway.
The Igbo World Assembly (IWA), in a recent statement by its chairman, Dr Nwachukwu Anakwenze; vice-chairman, Christian Onuorah; and secretary, Oliver Nwankor, had insisted that the IPOB was “not a terrorist group” as it is designated by the Federal Government and is hunting its members. Rather, IWA holds that “IPOB is a group of freedom fighters agitating for a better deal for their people.” This position of IWA is representative of the opinions of many across the region.Some of the people commenting on the issue of insecurity in the South-East are not ruling out the points above as having something to do with the new dimension of insecurity in the East. The worrying degree of attacks on police stations, as well as the novel kidnapping of commuting students have added a new tinge to the festering insecurity. Leaders from the region charged against it and called on the governors to act swiftly to bring it under control. The calls seem to fall on deaf ears and the violence by the so-called “unknown gunmen” continued. However, the attacks on the police command headquarters in Owerri and the national correctional centre in the city seemed to have spurred the governors to action.
Enters “Ebube Agu”
At the end of an emergency meeting in Owerri, the Imo State capital on April 11, they announced the formation of a security outfit codenamed “Ebube Agu”. Governor Umahi, who is the chairman of the South-East Governors Forum in the communiqué at the end of the meeting said: “Ebube Agu will work with the police and other security agencies in her operations to protect lives and property in the South East. The Attorneys-General and Commissioners for Justice of the South east states have been directed to work with the joint security committee to come up with the amendment of the existing state laws to reflect the new Ebube Agu outfit.”
However, to many of the South-East people, the formation of the security outfit was “belated” and an “afterthought.” Those with this belief contend that they had expected a collaborative action by January 2020, when Amotekun was being instituted in the South-West by the governors of the zone. “That was when the entire people of the South East had expected corresponding action from their governors,” a traditional ruler in Ebonyi State argued. “But while hosting the immediate past Inspector-General of Police, Mr Mohammed Adamu, at a security meeting, rather than speak to the insecurity ravaging their region, they were busy thanking President Buhari for supporting their daughter Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and dancing because of Enugu Airport. They were doing that while their counterparts in the South-West were speaking strongly and forming Amotekun against all intimidation.” According to him, the nearest they came to discussing the annoying attacks against their people was when they condescended and voted for community policing. He said: “As a measure of filling the vacuum, which the governors had created, the IPOB set up its own security network named the Eastern Security Network, which has now become a parallel organisation to Ebube Agu.” Many people in the South East didn’t show support for the Eastern Security Network (ESN), “a baby of IPOB when it was formed, and not because they didn’t see it as desirable or loved it, but because they were wary and afraid of what the federal government would do because of it since its parent organisation, IPOB has been designated as a terrorist group.”
Security operatives serving in the South-East states admitted that the new trend was “complicated but can probably be traced partly to the politics of interest among the governors of the zone as 2023 approaches.” According to them, there is what looks like a sense of entitlement by one of the governors, especially Governor Umahi in the 2023 scheme of things. “He doesn’t seem to be interested in negotiating with the others because he feels he is the most qualified among them to receive anything that might come to the region. He also believes that he has performed well and, having joined the All Progressives Congress (APC), which is in power at the centre, he is poised to be the favoured.” That was a general thinking among the security sources. But they were also quick to admit that their thinking was completely their opinion, as, according to them, “the whole thing still looks confusing now as we try to distil the scenario to pinpoint where the problem is coming from.”
There are claims that since the departure of Governor Umahi from the PDP, the state has not been the same again and the fallout of the defection of the Ebonyi helmsman is affecting the other states. “Many of his aides and supporters did not defect with him, and among these are their foot soldiers and sundry errand boys, who are known to both the governor and his recalcitrant aides, allies and so on. This could also be causing ripples among the political juggernauts in the state and beyond, argued a journalist in the state who pleaded anonymity.
Smear campaign
Some theories surrounding the prevalent situation in the South-East are already in the public domain. For instance, ne of the security sources, in analysing the damning attacks by the so-called “unknown gunmen” alleged that “most of the attacks in the region are perpetrated by IPOB elements. In their own wisdom, they have refused to take responsibility for the attacks, unlike Boko Haram. It is just like when you enter their camp and kill; they would still deny that there were killings.” The source, however, admitted that the dilemma among the security agencies was the denial to take responsibility for the attacks by those who have been fingered. “The leaders of IPOB have said they are after the Fulani herders who are killing and maiming farmers; raping their wives and destroying their farms. ESN said that and everybody knows that they are after the violent Fulani herders and it is not hidden. If they hear that Fulani are attacking so and so places, they would rise and go there and look for them. They have succeeded in instilling fear in the minds of those Fulani. Most of them have relocated from a state like Ebonyi. They have left Ebonyi.” He said: “From the end of EndSARS protests till now, cultists and IPOB activities increased. Some of the IPOB members were hiding under EndSARS to unleash mayhem at some of the police stations around. Some of the Keke riders are sympathetic to the IPOB, if they are not members. On whether the attacks are linked to a hidden big picture, to soil the reputation of the region ahead of the politicking, the security source said: “I don’t think that is a factor, going by our findings so far. Was the Amotekun for ‘Yoruba presidency’ or ‘Western presidency’? I ask this question because everybody knows that Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu is also working tirelessly to clinch that highest office; how will you put them side by side? But what I know is that most of the attacks here are perpetrated by IPOB elements. They don’t want to take any responsibility unlike the Boko Haram who will say they did this or that in order to further their own agenda. But these ones, even if you enter their camp and kill, they will still deny that there was no killing. Personally, they do these things and we will be hearing ‘hoodlums’ and ‘unknown gunmen’. Nobody wants to take responsibility and that is where the dilemma comes in. They still don’t come out to claim responsibility for any attack anywhere. The thing is somehow and puts everybody in a dilemma.”
Overall implications
Although security agents are denying that the attacks have anything to do with 2023, the preponderance of opinion among many in the region is that it has a lot to do with 2023. To the people, it is also uncanny that the government and its relevant agencies have also not been able to properly identify and name the “unknown gunmen” attacking security outfits in the region. The question commentators are raising is ‘why haven’t the ‘unknown gunmen’ been identified and named?” A school of thought, in answering this question, says it believes that the attacks targeted at the police stations and formations “is a part of the big picture”, which it claims “is to keep the region perpetually in the news for the wrong reasons, thereby whittling down whatever claims the region has to lead the country. “It’s all about the 2023 presidency. With continued attacks on police personnel, their stations and equipment; other security formations, who would want to listen to the South-East? So, the plan is to heighten the violence and detract from whatever goodwill that is left for the support for a president of South East extraction. That is my submission.”
Igbo presidency project
The significance of this, going by the fears being expressed, is that the region might lose out as the dint of trust from the other regions of the country might disappear as a result of the attacks. It should be noted that core leaders of the Igbo ethnic nationality have sustained the agitation that the next president of the country should be of an Igbo extraction in the interest of equity, fairness and justice. While a couple of distinguished sons of the zone have indicated their bid for the position, the umbrella organisation for the Igbo, Ohanaeze Ndigbo has sustained the tempo of the clamour by a preponderance of even non-Igbo that the next president of the country should come from the South-East. In a recent interview, the president-general of the group, Professor declared the intention of the Igbo to reach out to other parts of the country on the agenda. “We support Igbo president with open arms. It is the most important thing that will happen to the Igbo. Finally, it is our turn. And we are going to work on it so hard. We will talk to other parts of Nigeria to give us a chance. This is because it is right, reasonable, deserving and timely. It is wonderful to consider it done by this time. Igbo presidency is our agenda,” he said.
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