By Our correspondent
Foremost human rights group, International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), has fingered the Anambra State Commissioner for Homeland Security Chikodili Anara, a.k.a Igbakigba over insecurity in Anambra State.
This came some days after the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) made similar allegation.
In a statement by the Intersociety’s Board of Trustees Chairman, Emeka Umeagbalasi, the group accused Anara of abetting unlawful arrests and arbitrary detentions by armed state actor security operatives in Anambra State.
The group called on the Anambra State. Government to “end its silence and speak on Govt-linked private armies kidnapping, killing and disappearing”, adding that , “Gov Soludo must investigate Homeland Security Commissioner and look inward to unravel US Embassy convoy attack”.
The group’s statement read in part,”The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) has observed with total dismay and strong condemnation-the unchecked unarmed civilian deaths and incessancy of unlawful arrests and arbitrary detentions by armed state actor security operatives in Anambra State.
“The dastardly and prohibited acts are being perpetrated and perpetuated by the personnel and principal officers of the Nigerian Army (302 Artillery Regiment in Onitsha), the Nigerian Naval Base, Ogbaru, the Anambra State Police Command and the State Government funded Anambra Vigilante Services under the supervision of the State Commissioner for Homeland Security.
“These, they perpetrate and perpetuate by using false security intelligence and rogue-criminal investigations. The above named armed state actors and the present Government of Anambra State have also earned notoriety in false labeling and relied heavily on ‘hearsay conclusions’ under which unarmed and defenseless citizens are indiscriminately criminalized and rounded up for secret execution or arbitrary detention and denial of custodial liberties.
“Acts of disappearances and torture or other inhuman and degraded punishments or treatments are also very common in the handling styles of the named state actor security operatives and their principal officers; who also turn blind eyes on armed criminal parties and their weapons and channel their energies and resources against defenseless and unarmed citizens and their properties.
Intersociety averred that the attitudes of Anara and co had fueled insecurity in the state.
“These explain the reasons behind high level of impunity and ‘repeat offenses or returned criminalities’ especially felonious offenses inviolving high-profile shootings, abductions-for-ransoms and targeted assassinations across the State. This is also to the extent that the real fighting or armed criminal parties have remained unmasked and on the prowl.
“Policing and Military intelligence supplied to the Government of Anambra State are mired in “IPOB/ESN phobia” and often times diversionary and questionable. The worst of it all is that the Government of Anambra State heavily relies on such corrupted and biased military and police intelligence to make public pronouncements or form opinions or policies and Government actions on ‘insecurity in Anambra State’. The “IPOB/ESN-phobia” derived intelligence and investigations are so rampantly used by the State Police Commissioner and the principal officers of the deployed Nigerian Military that “investigations are commenced and concluded and findings made 30 minutes or less after every high-profile abduction or shooting or killing/abduction incident”.
“Intersociety also finds it difficult to locate situations whereby the State Police Command had started criminal investigations on such phantom allegations and had such investigations diligently concluded and the investigated suspects successfully prosecuted. We cannot also remember the last time the Anambra State Police Command secured judicial convictions against those it spuriously accused of treason or treasonable felonies in connection with “IPOB/ESN terrorism”.
“Apart from the State Police Command and the Anambra State Government funded Anambra Vigilante Services killing, abducting and disappearing unarmed citizens at will in broad day light and at the hours of the blue law using phantom and un-provable allegations of “IPOB/ESN terrorism”, it further saddens our heart that the Government of Prof Charles Soludo is relying on corrupted and biased intelligence supplied by the State Police Command and the deployed principal officers of the Ogbaru Naval Base and the 302 Artillery Regiment of the Nigerian Army, Onitsha.
“In matters of the law, and as a matter of fact, “the Nigerian military is incurably incompetent and incapable of generating effective policing intelligence in connection with the activities of civilians or citizens not subject to the Armed Forces Act of 2004”.
“The Military is also a meddlesome interloper in matters of securitization under civilian democratic dispensation. In the referenced Ogbaru US Embassy convoy attack, the authorities of the Government of Anambra State, the Nigerian Naval Base and the 302 Artillery Regiment of the Nigerian Army, Onitsha had severally announced the arrest or neutralization (extrajudicial killing) of not less than four sets of group citizens in connection with “killing US Embassy staffs in Ogbaru”.
“Members of some communities have also been sacked from their ancestral homes or forced to flee to avoid being falsely labeled, arrested or killed. Among the victims were a tertiary institution’s lecturer and aging husband and wife and their two children who are seasoned river-line fishers.”
