Since this year, the people of Imo State have not known real peace because of the increasing rate of insecurity being witnessed in the state, starting with the Orlu crisis reportedly fuelled by the clash between the Eastern Security Network and Nigerian soldiers.
However, the state of insecurity in Imo State seems to have worsened since last week, given reports of alleged arrests and killings in Owerri, the Imo State Capital, and its environs, by security agents who some suspect could be hired mercenaries.
On Saturday, May 29, 2021, security agents allegedly stormed the Owerri Timber Market popularly called ‘Ogbo Osisi’ in a convoy of over 11 vehicles including two armoured cars, Hilux vans, among others, and opened fire, arresting and whisking away to unknown destinations any young man they could lay their hands on, including a boy that helps his mother – a widow – to sell food in the Timber Market.
They were also said to have destroyed over ten vehicles around the market that day.
According to eyewitness reports, these security agents did not tell anybody where they were taking the boys they arrested in that market to. Owerri residents were thrown into fear, uncertainty, weeping, mourning and pandemonium.
The next day, being Sunday, 30th May 2021, the shocking news of the killing of a former presidential aide, Ahmed Gulak, by gunmen, while on his way to the Imo Airport from Owerri, further threw Imo people, especially the people of Ngor Okpala Local Government Area -where the airport is located – into further pandemonium, fear, uncertainty and grief.
Despite the fact that the gunmen who killed Ahmed Gulak have been killed by the gallant men of the Nigeria Police, according to a report they issued on Sunday evening, Ngor Okpala people are still living in fear while many have run into the bush for safety following rumours/reports circulating in the social media that a special squad of the Nigerian Army will be sent from Zaria to Ngor Okpala LGA to avenge for Gulak’s murder by abducting and killing any youth they find in the area.
Moreover, rumours are also rife that secret mass arrest and killing of young men are going on in Owerri and various parts of Imo State while house to house arrest of mature males is rumoured to be in the offing.
While we hope and pray that these rumours of the planned extermination of all young males in Imo State remain what they seem to be –“RUMOURS” — the fact still remains that some people have already suffered harassment, intimidation and assault in the hands of ‘security agents’ in Imo State, especially those that attacked people at the Timber Market on Saturday, May 29, 2021, while others, especially the people of Ngor Okpala, are now living in fear of a possible attack or arrest.
Therefore, I passionately appeal to the Amnesty International and other human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, Human Rights Writers Association, Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, the United Nations, the World Council of Churches and the entire International Community to quickly come to our aid by calling on the Nigerian Government and its security agents to halt, cancel and eschew any extermination plot against young male citizens of Ngor Okpala in particular and Imo State at large, should there be any iota of truth in the rumour.
Kelechi Sam Esogwa-Amadi is a Journalist, media consultant, pastor and bonafide Citizen of Ngor Okpala
