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SATURDAY Vanguard, MAY 22, 2021—11<br />
•Lucky Irabor<br />
By Vincent Ujumadu; Samuel<br />
Oyadongha;; Emma Una;<br />
Davies Iheamnachor, Chioma<br />
Onuegbu; Steve Oko &<br />
Ikechukwu Odu<br />
Every part of the country is presently<br />
feeling unsecured. No day passes that<br />
there are no killings and kidnapping<br />
for ransom by terrorists and bandits. Secondary<br />
students and university undergraduates are<br />
abducted, communities are sacked by bandits<br />
rendering the residents homeless. Traveling on<br />
the highway has now become a risky venture.<br />
But the situation in the South East and South<br />
South appears peculiar. The attacks and<br />
killings are targeted at security personnel and<br />
security formations. Scores of security<br />
operatives have been killed in the last couple<br />
of months and police stations set ablaze. Many<br />
policemen are now scared to walk along the<br />
streets in their uniform. But who are these<br />
gunmen who target security personnel and<br />
what is their motive? And why have they<br />
remained unknown?Leaders and residents in<br />
the region hold divergent views on what could<br />
be the motive for these attacks on security<br />
operatives<br />
Police brutality, extortion<br />
Respondents in the South East attributed the<br />
killing of policemen and burning of police<br />
stations in the region to accumulated anger<br />
by the people over police brutality in the region.<br />
Some of the reasons given by the people include<br />
alleged human rights abuses associated with<br />
police extortion and demand for gratification,<br />
humiliation of people at checkpoints, arbitrary<br />
arrests and detention of innocent citizens,<br />
raiding people’s homes for no justifiable<br />
reasons and forcing people to admit crimes<br />
not committed. There are<br />
also allegations of using<br />
cases before the police as<br />
revenue window, unduly<br />
picking up progressive<br />
Nigerian youths and<br />
dubbing them criminals<br />
out of jealousy,<br />
abandoning police official<br />
duties to serve politicians,<br />
often times turning cases<br />
against the complainants<br />
and protecting known<br />
criminals in the society.<br />
There also those who<br />
blame it on pure<br />
criminality of some people<br />
who are after the weapons<br />
of the officers.<br />
A lecturer of sociology,<br />
Dr. Ikem Nwankwo<br />
observed that the people<br />
have been enduring these<br />
abuses for decades until it<br />
exploded during the<br />
•Usman Baba<br />
Why gunmen target<br />
security formations,<br />
personnel in South<br />
East, South South<br />
•Security personnel accused of condoning atrocities of herdsmen<br />
•Anger over police brutality, extortion, arbitrary detentions<br />
•Attacks meant to deny S’East opportunity to produce president in 2023<br />
•Hoodlums need weapons to prosecute their criminal activities<br />
•Criminals want security personnel to abandon streets for them<br />
No day passes that<br />
there are no<br />
killings and kidnapping<br />
for ransom by terrorists<br />
and bandits. Secondary<br />
students and university<br />
undergraduates are<br />
abducted, communities<br />
are sacked by bandits<br />
rendering the residents<br />
homeless.<br />
#endsars protests.<br />
Nwankwo said: “The most<br />
common venues for<br />
extortion are the police<br />
roadblocks, which were put in place to combat<br />
crime. In practice, these checkpoints have<br />
become a lucrative criminal venture for the<br />
police who routinely demand bribes from<br />
drivers and passengers alike, in some places<br />
enforcing a standardized toll. Motorists are<br />
frequently detained, harassed and threatened<br />
and sometimes extended to their family<br />
members to negotiate payment for their<br />
release. Extortion-related<br />
confrontations between the police<br />
and motorists often escalate into<br />
more serious abuses. The police<br />
have on numerous occasions<br />
severely beaten, sexually<br />
assaulted, or shot to death<br />
ordinary citizens who failed to pay<br />
the bribes demanded. Sometimes<br />
they randomly round up citizens<br />
in public places, including<br />
restaurants, markets, and bus<br />
stops. Those who fail to pay are<br />
often threatened and unlawfully<br />
detained, and at times sexually<br />
assaulted, tortured, or even killed<br />
in police custody. Many of these<br />
abuses are perpetrated as a means<br />
to further extort money from<br />
ordinary citizens or from fearful<br />
family members trying to secure<br />
the freedom of those detained.<br />
Nigerians are also disturbed that<br />
over 100,000 police officers are<br />
hanging around politicians and<br />
rich men, while the country is<br />
grossly under policed. It was<br />
therefore not surprising that the<br />
#endsars provided an<br />
opportunity for Nigerians to vent their anger<br />
on the police.”<br />
An Awka based businessman, Mr. Philip<br />
Okoroma said “although accusing fingers<br />
were pointed at members of the Eastern<br />
Security Network, ESN, which is an arm of<br />
the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, for the<br />
attack on police formations and killing many<br />
of them, the truth of the matter is that the influx<br />
of criminal Fulani herdsmen in the South East<br />
infuriated pro Biafra groups. But it is still<br />
possible that it’s the same Fulani herdsmen<br />
who have virtually taken over many forests in<br />
Igbo land with their sophisticated arms, that<br />
are attacking and killing the security<br />
operatives to create the impression that the<br />
men of ESN are responsible for it.<br />
Protest against<br />
discrimination, bias<br />
The National Publicity Secretary of Pan<br />
Niger Delta Forum, PANDEF, Hon Ken<br />
Robinson, on his part believed that the gunmen<br />
must be targeting security personnel as a result<br />
of the selective approach of governance in the<br />
country. Robinson said: “The people behind it<br />
are ‘unknown gunmen’. And our position is<br />
that the attack is an expression of anger and<br />
some kind of hopelessness among citizens.<br />
The people doing this are not foreigners, they<br />
are Nigerians. They come from communities.<br />
They feel the pain of the discrimination and<br />
bias against some parts of the country. We had<br />
condemned the selective approach in saying<br />
that South-South and South-East would have<br />
a security arrangement which is unnecessary.<br />
It is a protestation, people are angry and they<br />
are protesting. It is a demonstration of anger.<br />
This the only reason we can proffer on why the<br />
attack is on security. We think that it is a sign<br />
that certain persons are not happy with the<br />
way things are happening in the country and<br />
they think that is the only way they can show<br />
their anger. But, our message to those carrying<br />
out this act is that these actions are needless.<br />
That is not the way to go.<br />
This may destroy the South<br />
East/South South regions<br />
A minority rights activist and immediate past<br />
President of Ijaw Youth Council (IYC)<br />
worldwide, Mr. Eric Omare, said “honestly, I<br />
am at a loss as to the reasons for the attacks<br />
and those behind them. I do not know the point<br />
they are trying to prove with those attacks. As<br />
far as I am concerned, attacking security posts<br />
and killing innocent people is never a means<br />
to express one’s grievances.<br />
Criminals want<br />
police off the streets<br />
For Joseph Ambakederimo, Convener<br />
South South Reawakening Group, criminals<br />
are simply on the prowl and nothing more.<br />
He said: “The antic is trying to apply<br />
maximum pressure for the police to give in<br />
and abandon the streets for them (criminals)<br />
to have a field day. I can remember vividly the<br />
‘Osunbo and Anini’ days in the old Bendel State<br />
where policemen had to wear mufti to be able<br />
to walk around town. This is a similar scenario<br />
playing out itself and it goes to confirm that<br />
the criminals are being caged and the only<br />
way to push back is to embark on such attacks.<br />
The police need to and must fight back with<br />
the support of all Nigerians.”<br />
It’s preparation<br />
for war in Nigeria<br />
Comrade Alagoa Morris, a renowned Niger<br />
Delta environmentalist, asserted: “Those<br />
saddled with the responsibility of securing<br />
lives and property and, indeed the well-being<br />
of the nation should know better as some have<br />
received related training and being paid by<br />
government for that service to the nation. That<br />
aside, I am of the view that the actions and<br />
body language of the Presidency as regards<br />
how security issues are handled have<br />
encouraged more Nigerians to take to selfdefence,<br />
which is a natural law of survival.<br />
Agreed that the nation has lost a great number<br />
of officers and men of the military fighting<br />
terrorists, kidnappers and bandits, most<br />
Nigerians are of the view that the efforts of the<br />
Federal Government in tackling threat posed<br />
by these criminals have not been good enough.<br />
It is even worse, what we hear daily about<br />
alleged actions of herdsmen and<br />
inflammatory statements by leaders of the<br />
herdsmen. In a situation whereby even<br />
governors are attacked shows how helpless<br />
the situation is. Nigerians, I believe are<br />
preparing for the worst in case of a full scale<br />
war. People are beginning to take steps, I guess,<br />
towards protecting their territories, while some<br />
may also be trying to take advantage of the<br />
almost uncontrollable security situation to<br />
actualise self determination through arms<br />
struggle. In my view, these groups are the ones<br />
Continues on page 12