The south-east has been enmeshed in uneasy calm following alleged perpetration of violence by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and the Eastern Security Network (ESN), and their infamous activities have been stagnating the economy of the region. Why are concerned authorities in the region still folding their arms?
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The Federal Government has finally amended the charge against the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, marked FHC/ABJ/CR/383/2015 signed by a team of government lawyers, led by the Director, Public Prosecution of the Federation, Mr M. B. Abubakar.
The charge alleged that Kanu had in furtherance of an act of terrorism, issued a deadly threat that anyone that flouted his sit-at-home order should write his or her will.
It alleged that as a result of Kanu’s directive, banks, schools, markets, shopping malls, fuel stations were not opened for businesses, with vehicular movements grounded in the South-East region of the country.
The charge also alleged that Kanu had “on or about April 28, 2015 in London, the United Kingdom did in a broadcast on Radio Biafra monitored in Enugu, Enugu tate and other parts of Nigeria within the jurisdiction referred to Major General Muhammadu Buhari, GCON, President and Commander-in- Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as a paedophile, a terrorist, an idiot and an embodiment of evil.”
He was alleged to have between 2018 and 2021, through Radio Biafra, professed to be a member of IPOB, a proscribed organisation in Nigeria.
Count five of the charge alleged that Kanu had on April 22, 2021, in London, United Kingdom, on Radio Biafra monitored in Enugu and other parts of Nigeria, did an act of terrorism “in that you incite the other members (followers) of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a proscribed organisation in Nigeria, to look for security personnel, their family members through a Radio Biafra on 102.1FM monitored through the IPOB Community Radio.
Since 2017, the IPOB has been designated as a terrorist organisation and since August 2020, violence has been escalating between the IPOB and the Nigerian government.
In August 2020, Nigerian Police Force allegedly executed 21 IPOB members at a meeting, with two police officers dead, though both sides accused each other of firing the first shot.
The IPOB formed the Eastern Security Network (ESN) in December 2020 after Obigbo massacre in River State, as a reaction to the perception of the Igbos that they are targeted by herders grazing on their farmlands and committing crimes against local residents.
The Nigerian government allegedly saw the ESN as a threat to its authority and so allegedly deployed the army to locate and destroy ESN bases. In January 2021 an intense fighting broke out between the military and ESN in Orlu, Imo State, and which lasted for seven days until ESN declared a unilateral ceasefire and both sides withdrew from the city.
Shortly after the Orlu crisis, IPOB gave all the governors of South-East of Nigeria 14 days to ban open grazing, threatening to deploy ESN to enforce the ban if the authorities did not comply.
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However, ESN did not wait for the expiration of the 14-day ultimatum, and so a few days after ESN operatives allegedly attacked a Fulani camp in Isuikwuato, Abia State, killing their livestock and burning down their houses.
Following the raid some governors responded to ESN’s call by banning open grazing.
IPOB accused the Nigerian Army of allegedly working in collaboration with the governor of Imo State, and so on February 18, 2021 the Nigeria military launched an airstrike in Orlu, Imo State, while IPOB issued a swift statement through its state directorate, asserting that “they have finally brought the war upon the Biafran people.”
In response to the deaths of 20 security personnel in the region in early 2021 by unknown gunmen, including the destruction of three police stations, Nigerian forces raided and captured an ESN camp in Aba, Abia State on the night of March 23, 2021 and allegedly claimed 16 ESN fighters.
On April 5, 2021 at around 2:00a.m a prison in Owerri, Imo State, was attacked by gunmen with explosives leading to the escape of 1844 inmates.
The group in a statement signed by its media and publicity secretary, Emma Powerful, and made available to newsmen in Awka, accused the Nigerian army and police of killing people in Biafra land and burning their houses while blaming the actions on unknown gunmen.
ESN has reportedly expressed its resolve that the November 6 governorship election in Anambra State will not hold, the group has been blamed for a series of attacks on politicians and their supporters that are campaigning for the election.
Former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Professor Charles Soludo was attacked by some gunmen at a town hall meeting in his community, Isuofia, Aguata Local Gov ernment Area, killing three policemen.
Dr Chike Akunyili, husband of the late Professor Dora Akunyili was reportedly gunned down around Nkpor in Anambra State, while returning from an event in honour of his late wife.
Only recently, unknown gunmen attacked the venue of a rally organised by the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), at Odoata Central School Field, Ihiala where they engaged security operatives in Governor Obiano’s convoy in a shootout that lasted over one hour.
According to the IPOB spokesman. “The South-East governors that Obiano said he would not sit at the table with to discuss insecurity in his state, should be made to explain all they know about the senseless killings in Anambra State.
“We pity those who are chasing after shadow, pointing accusing fingers at IPOB. Such fellows are ignorant of what politicians are capable of doing because of power.
“Igbo politicians were not like this before but desperation for power and determination by Fulani cabal to replicate what happened in Imo State in Anambra State are the reason for this madness. Their ultimate goal is to demonise IPOB.
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“Our people must ‘shine’ their eyes because the Fulani have planted their terrorists in our territory to eliminate high-profile Biafrans. Those self-acclaimed Igbo elite– Ohanaeze leaders, traditional rulers and religious leaders must look inward to fish out these Fulani-sponsored agents of death.
“They should stop linking IPOB with these killings because IPOB did not come to kill but to save, restore and rebuild.”
“ESN is not unknown gunmen reported to be responsible for the said attacks. ESN is identifiable and has a mandate. Its mandate is to protect the Eastern region against terrorists and the killer herdsmen.
“We have on several occasions stated that ESN is not after security agents, but terrorists rampaging our communities. ESN operates in the bushes and not in the cities. Anyone looking for them should go to the forests.
“Neither ESN nor IPOB is involved in the purported attacks against security agents. This is another fabricated lie by the Nigeria military to blackmail the security outfit and have another excuse to attack innocent people.
“We are however not surprised that the Nigerian Government will easily point accusing fingers at us. We know their antics. They are only looking for another justification to launch fresh military operation in the South-East and South-South to kill more innocent and unarmed Biafrans. What offence has ESN committed other than flushing terrorists out of our lands? When has resisting terrorists in the forest translate to attacking security operatives?
Investigation has shown that no fewer than 67 security agents comprising the police, Navy and officials of the Nigeria Correctional Service (NCS), as well as civilians have been killed by gunmen in the South-East and South-South since December last year. These include several burnt police stations in Abia, Imo, Anambra and Ebonyi states where they looted the arms and ammunition stored in the armoury as well as the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) offices.
In a recent interview, President Muhammadu Buhari reportedly spoke about the IPOB as though the group represents the entire Igbo people.
Some commentators have argued that the president has never been known to condemn the atrocities of armed herdsmen in the entire country, including south eastern rural communities. They stressed that his silence seemingly emboldens the criminals among the herdsmen to perpetrate more atrocities.
They pointed out that the formation of ESN by IPOB purportedly to defend the region from being ravaged by herders, prompted the national security forces into quick tracking of the group to prevent their operations.
Apparently, the clashes between the government forces and some unknown gunmen that have been accused rightly or wrongly as the IPOB and ESN have led to loss of lives on the side of the unknown gunmen, the police and soldiers, as well as created a climate of fear all over the South-East region.
As Anambra State prepares for the November 6 elections, INEC has said it would conduct the election, while President Buhari has directed the military and other security agencies to ensure that the election is conducted without any hitch.
Cheta Nwanze, a political analyst who has done extensive research on the pro-Biafra movement, says that Kanu was a relatively obscure figure until 2009 when he started the Radio Biafra, a station that called for an independent state for the Igbo people and broadcast to Nigeria from London.
Nwanze added that soon after setting up IPOB, he spoke to gatherings of the large Igbo Diaspora, calling for Biafran independence and in some of his comments, he urged Biafrans to take up arms against the Nigerian state.
“We need guns and we need bullets,” he allegedly said in one such address.
Nwanze said: “When the 2015 election happened, there was a slowdown in the popularity of his radio station and that’s when he decided to come to Nigeria to get arrested.”
Nwanze believes Kanu is an opportunist and points to a video where he was allegedly speaking at an anti-Boko Haram rally in London just months before he set up IPOB, where he spoke about the need to protect Nigeria from breaking apart.
Political analysts opined that IPOB may go the way of MASSOB (Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra), an earlier separatist movement, adding that MASSOB lost some of its influence after its leader was jailed in 2005 and released two years later.
The setting up of ESN now has ripple effect- as the proscribed body sit-at-home order is gradually destroying the economy nerve centre of the South Eastern region. The orgy of killing covertly or overtly by unknown gunmen or ESN is also snowballing into the trajectory that gave rise to the emergence of Boko Haram and the infiltration of the ISIS and other insurgents whose hallmark is killing, kidnapping, destruction of lives and property.