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The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) has accused the Nigerian security forces of clamping down on the South-East population and looking away from the terrorism and other heinous crimes perpetrated in other regions against the Igbos.
The rights organisation stated this in a report made available to SaharaReporters, titled: “Security Forces And Nigerian Government Forcing Southeast Igbo Population Into Suicide-Terrorism.”
In the report signed by Emeka Umeagbalasi, Obianuju Igboeli and Chidimma Udegbunam, it said that 50 defenceless civilians were killed in seven days by security forces in what it called “medicine-after-death attacks in Imo, Anambra and others.”
The report said, “The security forces have turned blind eyes on street criminal entities including armed robbers, kidnappers, cultists, rapists, ritualists, car snatchers, premeditated murderers and extractive mineral criminal gangs as well as provide safe corridors for suspected state raised fifth columnist counterfeiters.
“The Nigerian government and its security forces also appeared to be tacitly comfortable and supportive of the coordinated attacks on lives and properties of pastoral citizens of Igbo ethnic nationality especially the last week and this week’s violent attacks on Igbo settlements in Abuja (Dei Dei Timber Market), Sokoto and Kano states.
“We had expected the Nigerian government and its security forces to act or respond in the same manner they speedily respond and unleash state coercive instruments on civilians in the South-East. This is to the extent that till date, the fanatics that launched unprovoked violence against Igbo settlements and their properties in the aforementioned areas are still on the prowl with impunity and recklessness.
“Soldiers of the Nigerian Army or “Tactical or Crack Squads” of the NPF were also nowhere to be found during the mayhems. Today, affected Igbo traders and religionists are counting their losses in billions with several of them rendered pauper for life.”
The report stated that the continued targeting and killing of unarmed IPOB activists were not supported by any written law in Nigeria.
“Killing unarmed IPOB activists are clearly against the laid down rules, procedures and provisions in the Terrorism Prevention Act of 2013, the Administration of Criminal Justice Act of 2015, the Criminal Code Act of 2004 and the Chapter Four of the 1999 Constitution as well as the Int’l Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of the United Nations and the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights of the African Union 1981, all ratified by Nigeria in 1993 and 1983.
“The targeted killing of unarmed IPOB activists by security forces of Nigeria is also part of the Government’s policies of ethnic profiling, hate policing and structural, physical and cultural violence. It amounts to extra jus and extrajudicial and acts of negligence to target and kill any unarmed member of a civil class.”
