Government agents illegally kill at least 115 citizens in four southeast Nigerian states, an Amnesty International report has said.
Amnesty said it has evidence of “52 cases of unlawful killings and 62 cases of arbitrary arrest, ill-treatment and torture.”
It also reviewed media and audiovisual reports of how Nigerian security forces use “excessive force…” in dealing with suspects.
Country Director, Osai Ojigho, accused government agents of using “ruthless excessive force” on citizens of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi and Imo.
The report said agents of government employ “excessive use of force, physical abuse, secret detentions, extortion, burning of houses, theft, and extrajudicial executions of suspects.”
The Amnesty report of the Government agents’ operations in the Southeast was published this Thursday, 5 August 2021.
The Nigerian government has yet to respond to the allegations in the report by the international human rights organisation.
Amnesty described what has been happening in Southeast Nigeria since January 2021 as a “repressive campaign.”
This campaign involves “sweeping mass arrests, excessive and unlawful force, and torture and other ill-treatment,” of citizens in the region.
Government had accused the Eastern Security Network (ESN) of killing dozens of security officials and torching public buildings.
Amnesty said Government security forces (military, police, DSS) responded by killing gunmen and civilians where alleged ESN attacks took place.
ESN was launched as the armed wing of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) movement, which Mazi Nnamdi Kanu leads.
IPOB has, however, consistently denied that ESN was responsible for the killings and arson.
Kanu himself was in June 2021 “intercepted” in Kenya and bundled into Nigeria to continue his trial for treasonable felony.
The Amnesty report pointed out that Imo state government confirmed arrest of over 400 people allegedly linked to the violence.
Amnesty investigations however showed that most were “randomly picked up in their homes and off the street and had nothing to do with ESN.”
“Some victims told Amnesty international that they were arrested while walking in the street, at a public bar or simply for having birth marks or tattoos on their body.”
Amnesty called for “an impartial and open inquiry to determine what happened” in the region.
It also demanded that authorities prosecute detained suspects “in fair trials before ordinary civilian courts and without recourse to death penalty.”
The lead counsel to IPOB’s Nnamdi Kanu had hitherto accused government of unlawful arrest of over 2,000 youths from the region.
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