…seeks the intervention of the international community
The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, Intersociety, says Imo State under Governor Hope Uzodinma has become the most violent and human rights-abusing state in the country.
Emeka Umeagbalasi, the board chairman of the civil society organisation, stated this at a press conference in Enugu on Sunday, describing the “wanton destruction of lives and properties” under Governor Uzodimma as “shocking, chilling and alarming.”
Umeagbalasi said, “From January 2021 to May 2023, a period of 29 months, security forces and allied militias have killed at least 900 defenceless and unarmed citizens, injured 700, arrested 3,500, kidnapped 300, and invaded 80 communities in at least 20 of the state’s 27 local government areas where at least 1,200 civilian houses and other properties including market stores were atrociously burned down or destroyed.
“The attacks have also displaced at least 30,000 occupants or owners of the 1,200 burnt or destroyed houses. The fears generated by the egregious and grisly attacks have forced at least 500,000 defenceless citizens in productive age brackets to flee their homes and relocate to places considered to be safer to avoid being abducted and killed in custody or shot and killed at sight; or sexually harassed or raped to death in captivity, in the case of young females.”
The gruesome attacks, Umeagbalasi said, are executed by armed state actors, including the Nigeria Police Force and its crack squads’ formations within and outside Imo State, the Ebubeagu government-sponsored militia and the Nigeria Army, and armed non-state actors, including Fulani Jihadists, bandits, and the Eastern Security Network militia.
Intersociety estimated the number of persons killed by armed state actors between January 2021 and May 2023 at 600 while the number of killings by non-state actors is at least 700 with about 900 cases of abduction.
Following the disturbing reports, Intersociety called for international criminal enquiries and indictments in Imo State.
Seeking the intervention of the “apostles and disciples of justice”, including the International Criminal Court, ICC, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch, HRW, the civil society group is requesting an investigation of the cases and the trial and conviction of the perpetrators and enablers of the violence in the state.
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