Insecurity: Confusion persists over who is behind South-East attacks dailypost.ng - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from dailypost.ng Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The meeting came one week after gunmen attacked and freed 1,884 inmates from the Nigerian Correctional Centre, Owerri and set over 50 vehicles ablaze at the Imo State Police Command headquarters. It was just one of the many deadly attacks carried out against the police in the region in recent times.
For some time now, gunmen suspected to be members of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) have consistently launched attacks on policemen in the region, burning formations and carting away arms. They have also unleashed their attacks on civilians.
The chairman, South East Governors Forum and Governor of Ebonyi State, Dave Umahi, said they would galvanise all relevant stakeholders – the political class, business community, bureaucrats and the intelligentsia – to ensure total success of the fight against criminality.
• Group says initiative lacks legal backing
Disturbed by worsening insecurity in the region, the Southeast Governor’s Forum recently endorsed Ebube agu as an alternative security outfit.
However, barely 24 hours after the endorsement, the International Society for Civil and Rule of Law, has faulted the belated floating of the outfit, describing it as suspicious and inoperable.
Chairman Board of Trustees (BoT) of the group, Emeka Umeagbalasi said the panicky and hurried announcement of the new security outfit by the Southeast Governors’ Forum was discomforting, noting that the establishment of Ebube agu came at a time “when all hopes have been lost from state actor angles, forcing most citizens of the region to place their hopes, expectations and solutions in non-state actors.”
2023: Umahi, Okorocha, Kalu on the scale dailytrust.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from dailytrust.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Kingsley Nwezeh delves into the growing list of regional security outfits in the Southern part of the country, the rationale behind their emergence and the implications for Nigeria’s corporate existence
With the birth of the South-east Regional Security Outfit, Ebube Agu (the fearsome aura of a lion) by the South-east Governors’ Forum last week, the outfit joined the growing list of regional organisations, after their South-west counterparts launched Amotekun last year.
The alternative security measures are largely a response to wanton killings, kidnappings and rape of married and young women across the country by herdsmen, terrorists, armed bandits and other criminal elements who have recently moved down south.