Operation ‘Golden Dawn’ In South-East Is Deaf, Dumb, Couldn’t Stop Killer Herdsmen From Sacking Enugu Communities – Intersociety Tackles Nigerian Army 

The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), a civic organisation, has condemned the incessant attacks by armed herdsmen on Enugu State communities while the Nigerian security agencies look the other way.

The group in statement issued on Thursday, titled “Enugu Under Siege By Jihadist Herdsmen As Army’s ‘Operation Golden Dawn’ Goes Deaf And Dumb,” called on the governors of old Eastern region to go for 60% Security Chiefs from the East and immediate ensure transfer of no fewer than 20 senior military and police commanders of Muslim extraction and other disproportionately deployed senior officers of non-Eastern origin.

Intersociety in the statement signed by its principal officers – Emeka Umeagbalasi, Obianuju Joy Igboeli, Chidinma Udegbunam, insisted that the 11 governors of Edo, Delta, Anambra, Enugu, Ebonyi, Imo, Abia, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Cross River and Bayelsa must urgently ensure ethno-religious de-radicalisation of the safety and security in the East and giving the Eastern population a true sense of belonging including “security and safety with local contents.”

According to the group, “the principal officers of the Nigerian Army responsible for the Army’s touted “Operation Golden Dawn” in the Southeast part of Eastern Nigeria have become totally deaf and dumb as Enugu goes up in flames ignited by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen.

“As a matter of fact, “Enugu State is no longer in the Hands of God”. The state, especially communities surrounding the State’s ancient Capital City have come under heavy and unchecked jihadist invasions by the Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen.

The invasions of the Capital of Eastern Nigeria; also the Christian Capital of the East are coming few months after it was trended and widely streamed in the social media by some locals that “they saw a strange security helicopter dropping weapons of death to a group of persons with unknown tribal identities”, an allegation controversially dismissed by security and political establishments in the State.

“However, by available pieces of investigative intelligence, Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen have since 10th Nov 2022 or in the past two weeks invaded various parts of the State and ignited flames, fears, panics, blood and tears among the helpless Enugu communities and their defenseless rural dwellers leading to unspecified number of deaths and injuries.

“This is to the extent that several key and heavily motorised inter-state and federal roads and communal bypasses have become no-go areas and death-traps. For two weeks, the ‘Four-Corner’ part of Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway, Ugwuogo-Nike-Opi Nsukka part of Enugu, Nsude part of Old Enugu-Onitsha Road and Eke-Ezeagu axis, among others have come under severe invasions and attacks by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen.

“Several communities in Ezeagu, Udi, Nkanu West, Nkanu East, Okpanku area of Ani-Nri, Uzo-Uwani, Isi-Uzo, Igbo-Eze North, Igbo-Eze South, Igbo-Etiti, Ngwo part of Enugu East, Enugu West, Oji River, among others have been invaded and attacked or come under serious threats of invasion and attack by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen; thereby thrown them into nightmare.”

The group added, “In the past two weeks under reference, over 20 or as much as 30 defenseless passengers have been abducted-with scores shot and critically injured, if not killed. On Tuesday, 15th Nov 2022, at least three persons who are indigenes/friends of Nsude in Udi were abducted by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen dressed in military camouflage and armed with automatic rifles.

“The Jihadist abductors also covered their faces with Arabic textiles. As at three days ago, 21st Nov 2022, the abducted victims have not been freed and their friend car-owner is still on admission at a private hospital in Onitsha over gunshot wounds sustained while trying to escape with his car. Eha-Amufu Community in Isi-Uzo Local Government Area of the State has been under bloody attack and butchery by the Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen.

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“This is to the extent that since Monday, Nov 21, 2022, 20-25 defenseless locals, all Christians; have been slaughtered and several dwelling houses burned down or destroyed. Many of those communities under threats of invasion and attack have been sleeping with one eye closed while several others especially young women of non-menopausal age brackets have fled to avoid being raped to death or have their womanhood defiled or abused.

“The slain and the maimed victims of the Jihadists’ attacks include ageing, women and children. The invasions, attacks, killings, human person degradation and property destruction in the affected communities have been perpetrated by the Jihadists with little or no counter responses from Army and Police; except in minutest cases by local vigilantes.”

Intersociety lamented that soldiers of the Nigerian Army and various police crack squads have disappeared to only God knows where and their conjectured public statements and press conferences on “Biafra Matters” gone silent and dead as expected.

“Same is the case with Ugwuogo-Nike-Opi-Nsukka Road. Intersociety had several times investigated and found that the military and other security forces and their principal officers deployed in the East particularly the South-East are aiding and abetting the genocidal activities of the Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen in the East including their jihadist incursions into the Region’s forests, bushes and farmlands. It is no longer new to observe that the only operational mandate of the deployed security forces and their commanders in the East is to “murderously go after those involved in “Biafra Matters” including the unarmed and the uninvolved.

“A former Army Chief of Northern Muslim extraction had in 2021 charged soldiers “to take war to South-East villages and communities where soldiers are attacked or killed”. Since then, hell has been let loose on defenseless Easterners/South-Easterners and their properties while same military turn total blind eyes on genocidal activities of the Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen in the East; cuddling and breastfeeding them.”

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