President Muhammadu Buhari
‘Security forces killed 1,400 civilians in 14 months in South-East’ – Intersociety alleges
[From CHINEDU NWAFOR, Abakaliki]
Human rights group, the International Society For Human Rights and the Rule of Law (Intersociety) based in Onitsha, on Wednesday alleged that soldiers of the Nigerian Army killed at least 1400 defenseless citizens between October 2020 and December 2021, a period of 14 months.
In its report which it said was based on extensive investigation, the group led by Comrade Emeka Umeagbalasi said that in addition, over 4,800 civilians were arrested, while another 1000 went missing.
The victims are mostly Christians, according to the group.
“In all, 100 Igbo communities were invaded, and 1000 homes attacked leading to a loss of property worth N40 billion.
“The killings represented monthly average of 85 deaths and daily average of three which may be more given that there were 1000 missing citizens that are yet to be accounted for. They may have been killed.
“This is because they were abducted by security forces and taken into custody outside the knowledge of their families and lawyers and have been missing till date, the report said.
“This is more so when strong evidence abounds showing no traces of location and securing the release of citizens abducted by soldiers of the Nigerian Army in Eastern Nigeria since January 2021.
“There was also hardly handover or transfer of those arrested or abducted to the Police. From our investigation, most, if not all those abducted by them since January 2021 have never been located by families or seen alive till date”, the group explained.
It said that over 70% of the abduction and disappearance were allegedly caused by soldiers of the Nigerian Army while DSS, NPF, Nigerian Navy and Nigerian Air Force are separately and jointly responsible for the remaining 30%.
The group further alleged that Fulani Herdsmen protected by federal forces were responsible for hacking to death in 2021 alone of at least 270 Igbo Christians.
“These killings took place mainly in Ebonyi, Enugu, Anambra, Imo, Abia and Igbo parts of Delta, Edo (Obiaruku and Igbo-Akiri), Benue and Kogi States.
“The killings by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen have brought the total number of defenseless citizens traceably killed in Eastern Nigeria in the past 14 months to at least 1,400.
“This is when added to 1,150 defenseless civilian deaths perpetrated by security forces”, it said.
