In the past year, the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), a human rights organization, has expressed alarm over the killings in Imo State. The group has called on international criminal inquiries to assist in getting to the bottom of the issue in the state.
According to Intersociety, there is no need “to inquire into the gruesome killings of unarmed civilians and the burning down of peoples’ houses in the guise of fighting criminal elements.” The group emphasizes that criminal inquiries will further help to expose the true identities of those behind the atrocities.
Intersociety has expressed dismay over the increasing frequency with which people are being “abducted, killed, disappeared, arbitrarily arrested/detained, and tortured” in the South East region of Nigeria, especially Imo State. Presenting its report on the killing in Imo State, Comrade Emeka Umeagbalasi, the Chairman of Intersociety, claimed that “no fewer than 1,600 unarmed citizens of Imo State have been killed while 300 others have disappeared without a trace between January 2021 and May 2023, a period of 29 months.”
Umeagbalasi revealed that their investigation showed that “over 700 people have also sustained life-threatening injuries, with over 900 others abducted within the same period under review.” “State and non-state actors,” he claimed, were responsible for the Imo killings. “State actors accounted for the death of 900 out of the 1600 unarmed persons killed in the state, while the other 700 were killed by armed non-state actors within the period under review.”
The report presented by Umeagbalasi shows that 600 out of the 900 were secretly killed by state actors while 300 died in open shootings. The investigation also revealed that “400 out of the 700 killed by armed non-state actors died in captivity while 300 others were killed in open shootings.”
Furthermore, “3,500 young people” were arrested by state actors, with approximately “1,400 of them paying through their noses to secure their freedom, while over 1,500 of them are still being detained in various detention facilities within and outside the state.”
In addition, around “1,200 houses were burnt with their 30,000 dwellers displaced, while 500,000 citizens of the state in active age brackets,” were forced to flee to escape the attacks and killings.
According to Umeagbalasi, the affected local government areas consist of; Orsu, Orlu, Oru East, Oru West, Mbaitoli, Ngor Okpala, Oguta, Ohaji/Egbema, Okigwe, Ideato North, Ideato South, Njaba, Isu, Nwangele, Nkwerre, Owerri Municipal, Owerri North, Owerri West, Ahiazu Mbaise, Ezinihitte Mbaise, and Onuimo.
Families who fear attacks and killings now prefer to hold funeral ceremonies outside the state because of the insecurity created by the killings in the state. Intersociety has called on the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to initiate international criminal inquiries into the Imo killings and reveal the identities of the perpetrators of these heinous acts.
As Intersociety urges criminal inquiries to be performed, it also suggests that “the leading perpetrators shall be placed on visa bans and barred from all forms of international career, professional, and private engagements,” particularly in countries like the USA, Canada, Australia, UK, EU, France, Germany, and South-East Asia due to their involvement in egregious human rights abuses and violations in Imo State in particular and the Southeast in general.
