By Ona Ona
‘Igbo Bu Ofu’ a pan Igbo Igbo socio-cultural group, has called for overhaul the security architecture in the South East to stem the tide of growing insecurity in the region.
The group said in a communiqué issued over the weekend, also demanded for immediate transfer of heads of military and Police Command and formations out of the zone.
“Insecurity in the South East has risen to an all-time high and some communities in the Enugu, Anambra and Imo States are leaving their places to avoid being slaughtered by the heartless perpetrators of this heinous crime”.
“In Anambra state, especially in the Southern and some parts of Central Senatorial zones are no-go areas as kidnappers and criminals have taken over”.
“Speculations are that, some personnel of security outfits especially the military and the Police have been accused of being behind the insecurity in the South East as some of them are said to be working in conivance with Fulani Herdsmen and Bandits in their kidnapping and killing spree”.
Igbo Bu Ofu in the statement signed by their leader Ichie Agu-di-ebube Ikemba Listed some victims of the Fulani Herdsmen recently to include former Prelate of Methodist Church of Nigeria, who was kidnapped at Isuochi, Abia State Dr Dan Shere, former Secretary to the Enugu State Government who was kidnapped at Ugwogo, Nike-Road,on his way to a meeting at Nsukka.
“The group accused the federal government and the military high command of openly having soft spot for the bandits and the killer Herdsmen, noting that the federal government recruit the so-called repentant Boko Haram members into security outfits, while the Nigerian Army and other security personnel allegedly provide cover for them”.
They said in the “hypocrisy of the federal government and security outfits, they call killer Herdsmen herders and reduce the killings and kidnapping of other Nigerians as mere farmers/herders clash, focusing all their operations on IPOB and Eastern Security Network (ESN)”.
However, the group noted that although while not holding brief for ESN, “the group was a response to the massive and mindless killings by these Fulani Herdsmen with the active support of the security personnel”.
They said that ESN saw kidnapping as a lucrative business and went out of control by forming Unknown Gun Men which now also engage in kidnapping, killings, rapping, maiming unarmed civilians while commiting other criminal activities.
The group blamed governors of the South East who sponsor insecurity in their respective States because of their selfish political ambition, saying that “if the security situation in the South East is not urgently addressed by stakeholders, a time will come when nobody would be spared”.
But the Igbo group listed poor governance which has resulted in gross unemployment, poverty and hunger as the cause of the proliferation of non-state actors in the insecurity in the South East.
They said both Federal and State Governments should commence the payment of stipends up to about N50,000.00 to young but unemployed persons as a way out of the current travail.
Igbo Bu Ofu also said that those criminals who want to drop their guns and live in the bush should be granted amnesty if they have genuine repentance, unlike the Boko haram elements.
