A foremost human rights group based in Onitsha, the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) has traced the many killings in Imo State to the controversial judgement of the Supreme Court, which installed Senator Hope Uzodinma as governor of the state.
The group in a 33-page special report unveiled yesterday, in Enugu, said the level of killings in Imo State were far more than what could be reported in the media.
The Chairman, Board of Trustees of the group, Mr. Emeka Umeagbalasi, who unveiled the report before journalists in Enugu, also alleged that many families of Imo descent today bury their dead relatives outside Imo, because of fear of visiting the state.
The group in the report blamed state actors and non-state actors for some of the killings in the state.
“In the last 29 months, that is between January 2021 and May 2023 under Governor Hope Uzodinma, security forces and allied militia have killed 900 unarmed citizens, wounded 700, arrested, 3,500, extorted 1,400 and disappeared 300.
“Also, 1,200 houses belonging to civilians were burnt, 30,000 owners of the houses displaced, 500,000 indigenes of communities in Imo within active age bracket forced to flee home to avoid being killed or kidnapped.
“The origin of the killings in Imo today is the controversial Supreme Court judgement, which installed Hope Uzodinma as governor of the state. Imo is in deeper crisis than you think. Most of the killings are not reported.
“You may not know, but many Imo indigenes no longer take their dead relatives home for burial. Within this year, I have personally witnessed four funerals in Ogbaru, Anambra State, which are those of Imo State indigenes.
“The wanton destruction of lives and properties in 29 months gone by in Imo State, under Governor Hope Uzodinma is so shocking, chilling and alarming that many families in the affected local government area no longer ancestrally give their loved ones who die naturally or unnaturally burials and funerals.
“Dead bodies are secretly smuggled in at night and secretly and indecently buried, after which their funerals are organised outside their ancestral homes, in other cities.”
The group called for international criminal enquiries and indictments into the incidences in Imo State, saying there was need to punish those who do the wrong thing, especially those responsible for the killings.
“The criminal enquiries under demand are extremely necessary for purposes of unmasking the identities of those responsible for the killings, abduction and all others, and those that aided and abetted them.
“It is on the strength of these that we are calling on Chief Prosecutor of the ICC, Hon Karim A.A Khan, and others to intervene in Nigeria’s Imo and south east region. They should investigate, prosecute and judicially convict the perpetrators in the Imo mass murder, civilian house burnings and other internationally prohibited acts and conducts,” the group said.
NLC President, Ajaero rates Buhari low on infrastructure, power, others
President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Joe Ajaero has criticised the outgoing government under President Muhammadu Buhari, saying it performed poorly on power supply, infrastructure, and industrial relations with aggrieved unions.
Ajaero also claimed political parties in Nigeria lacked ideologies, a phenomenon that makes them underperform when elected into public office.
According to the NLC President, he does not expect much from the incoming administration, since they are from the same party.
He said this on Monday, when he paid a visit to the Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations, Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services Employees (AUPCTRE) head office in Abuja as part of his familarisation tour of unions.
His words, “We want a government that Nigerians will enjoy and this level of underdevelopment will stop. Because what we are saying is that Nigeria is underdeveloping. We are rescinding everywhere. At the point that Buhari took over government, in the power sector, for instance, they were hovering between 4,000 to 5,000 megawatts averagely. And in the past eight years, it has been reduced to about 3,000. That is moving back from where we were.
“ASUU strike used to be three to four months, under his watch, we started recording eight months of ASUU strike. We are rescinding.
“If you check the infrastructure, it is still the same thing. If we were paying N50,000 for air ticket before, we are paying about N80,000 today. So, the new government, we are still waiting to get their own agenda. Because if we follow the manifesto of the APC, they will sustain what Buhari has done, and if it is underdevelopment that they are sustaining, then there is a problem. So the NLC will wait for the agenda of the new government before we comment.
“You can see that parties no longer implement their manifesto. So that is why we are worried. We can’t talk about the agenda of any government. We can only wait for them to state their own agenda.”
