Residents and citizens have expressed quiet worries over the identity of south-east killer gunmen destroying police stations in the region.

A prime fear among the people is that a powerful public relations lobby has been deployed to continue to hide the identities of the murderous gunmen.

Since the invasion began in January, three months ago, no one has been arrested in connection with the murder and arson at police stations.

Citizen fears heightened after the attack on Imo State Police Command Headquarters where a video footage of the gunmen was said to have been obtained.

Although the State Governor initially fingered IPOB as perpetrators of the attack, he later recanted to join those wondering who they really were.

There were speculations that the video footage showed the attackers not speaking Igbo but a different language from the North, hence the Governor’s volte-face.

Enugu Metro publisher, Mazi Ogbuagu Anikwe, had suggested in a newspaper column article that the modus operandi of the gunmen appears too sophisticated to be the work of local non-state actors.

As he put it, “the ease with which these operations are accomplished indicates a level of professionalism that comes from months, if not years, of practice.

“The security agencies should, therefore … look beyond (IPOB) to see if this is not the work of outside agents looking for weapons to unleash a reign of terror in the South East and surrounding regions.”

A veteran journalist and celebrated crime reporter, Mr. Ben Okezie, wondered how it was possible for gunmen to storm the Imo State Police Command and carry out large scale destruction without the police firing back at them once.

“These so-called armed men … dared the police and set ablaze over 100 vehicles, shot sporadically in their faces and some even urinated there before scampering into the streets and no one security agent could trace their whereabouts one week after?

“Imagine such high-class security buildings having no standby armed patrols like the Mobile Police squadron that is mandatorily attached to every police command headquarters across the country.

“More unbelievable is to hear that none of the armed hoodlums was gunned down. Also, more surprising is the fact that no CCTV cameras (worked),” he said

Security analysts say that the attacks have all the signatures of insurgents operating in North East and North Western Nigeria.

Timidity in naming and shaming

South East people are showing unnecessary timidity in naming and shaming the perpetrators, we were told in order to unmast the identity of the south-east killer gunmen.

As one editor operating from the region put it, “in the North East, they are Boko Haram, in North West, they are bandits, in South West, they are Fulani Herdsmen, in South East, they are unknown gunmen. Egwu di kwa!”

Another analyst concurs: “Miyetti Allah kept tightening the screw by all means  on Nigeria’s media until they dropped the word Fulani from Fulani herdsmen.

“This was most evident when the Fulani terrorists were ravaging Benue.

“The Fulani appendage was resurrected only recently when they made a flanking foray into the South West.”

Citizens also wonder who has been paid to push the narrative to rename the perpetrators of crimes across the country.

Murderous Fulani herdsmen was sanitized to “herdsmen. Sleeper terrorist cells have been perfumed to be known and addressed as unknown gunmen., especially after the pushback by IPOB and the governors of the SE states.

There’s definitely a PR machine in full operation, they said.

 “If we have a modicum of security intelligence in Nigeria we would see that these elements reside in Lagos (where they’ve been planted and bourgeoning for at least six years),” said one.

“We may need to know who is funding the sanitization of these nomenclature.

Enugu Metro had reported that almost two dozen police stations have been invaded by the gunmen since January 2021.

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