Report: Political And Armed State Actors In South-East EASTERN PILOT | SEPTEMBER 28, 2026 | Report By: Intersociety & Southeast CLO: E...
Report: Political And Armed State Actors In South-East
EASTERN PILOT | SEPTEMBER 28, 2026 |
Report By: Intersociety & Southeast CLO: Enugu-Nigeria | Sunday August 9, 2026 |
(Enugu-Nigeria, Sunday August 9, 2026): Joint International Report By Nigeria’s Intersociety And United States-Based Ekwenche Research Institute On Political And Armed State Actor And Armed Non-State Actor Ethno-Religious Persecution Of Defenseless Igbo Land South-East Judeo-Christians And Wanton Attacks On Their Territories And Properties Using Structural, Cultural And Physical Violence
Title:
Under Political And Armed State Actors In South-East: Igbo Land Judeo-Christian Parents Found To Have Shunned Military Enlistment Of Their Children Because More Than 6000 Families Still Looking For Their Beloved Sons And Daughters Gone Missing Under Nigerian Military Since Jan 2021-July 2026-As Thousands Of Others Remain Untraced And Un-Accounted For Between August 2015 And Dec 2019-To The Extent That No Fewer Than 400 Remained Abducted, Controversially Labelled And Un-Accounted For In Seven Months Of Jan-July 2026: A Special Case-Study Of Widespread Abductions, Disappearances, Shootings At Close Range Outside Circumstantial Evidence, Extrajudicial And Other Unlawful Killings-Using False Labelling, Discriminatory Law Enforcements, Mass Criminalization And Class Stigmatization, Ethno-Religious Profiling And Flawed Trials At ‘WAWA’ Military Cantonment And Other Life-Threatening Secret Custodial Facilities In Northern Nigeria.Under Armed Non-State Actor And Political And Armed State Actor Conspiracy:
Igbo Land South-East Found To Be Bleeding Under Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen-Led Secret And Open Terror Attacks In Conspiracy With And Inaction Of South-East Governments And The Region’s Military, Police And Intelligence Formations-Using False Denials, Cover-Ups, Apportionment Of Blames On Wrong Parties And Suppression Of Facts-To Deny Responsibility Since 2015-With Estimated 7000 Judeo-Christian Lives Lost Since April 2016 And 200 Others Estimated To Have Been Ambushed, Abducted And Killed On Roadways And Forests In Seven Months Of January-July 2026: A Case-Study Of Ezeagu And Eha-Amufu Communities’ Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen Mayhem And Circumstantial Complicity Of Enugu Government, Enugu State Police Command And Soldiers Of 82 Division Of The Nigerian Army-Enugu.
Under Armed Non-State Actor Religious Genocide:
Islamic Jihadists Killed 299 Defenceless And Peaceful Christians And Abducted 213 Others Across Nigeria In July 2026 Alone; Killed 150 Mostly Indigenous Hausa Muslims, Attacked And Sacked Four Churches, Abducted Two Catholic Seminarians, Killed A Catholic Reverend Father And Killed Or Abducted Four Pentecostal Pastors
(1) Fundamental Findings: Criminality Of Religious Persecution Under United Nations: Religious persecution is the systematic oppression and suppression of an individual or a group of individuals on the grounds of their religion or beliefs or affiliations; using systematic application of state actor or non-state actor (or both) violence of international criminal law gravity, defined and recognized as ‘Heinous Crimes or Conduct-Atrocities’ within the frameworks of the United Nations’ Charter of 1945 and the International Court Criminal Statute of 1998, both of which were inviolably ratified by Nigeria on October 7, 1960 and September 27, 2001.
Such violence warranting state actor or non-state actor Religious Persecution must be those clearly defined and recognized as amounting to ‘Crimes against Humanity’, War Crimes’ and ‘Crimes of Genocide’ contained in the International Criminal Court Statute of 1998 and the Genocide Convention of 1948; both of which were inviolably ratified by Nigeria on September 27, 2001 and July 27, 2009. In Nigeria, there are at least 22 International Heinous Crimes involved in the state actor and non-state actor Religious Persecution Heinous Crimes tearing Nigeria apart and frightening, uprooting and unsettling the country’s estimated 113m Judeo-Christians
Nigeria’s Obligations Under International Religious Freedoms In Gross Breach:
The Nigerian State or Government of Nigeria including political state actors and armed state actors are found to have woefully failed to honor the country’s international obligations especially those aimed at ensuring International Peace and Security and minimization of large scale interstate and intrastate violent conflicts under the United Nations System. This to the extent that should Nigeria with UN estimated 230m population explodes into Rwandan-type ethno-religious genocidal conflict, the whole World and its leading Continents of Europe, South America and Asia including ASEAN, Gulf States and Middle-East will be imploded and exploded into intractable humanitarian tragedies and “complex humanitarian emergencies!
This also is to the extent that Government of Nigeria has failed woefully to uphold and protect International Freedom of Religion or Beliefs contained in Sections 38 (right to freedom of religion, conscience and thought) and 42 (right to freedom from discrimination) of the country’s Municipal Constitution and Articles 8 and 18 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (1981), the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (1948) as well as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1976). The Nigerian Government is also found to have observed in gross breach the Right to Freedom from Discrimination under Section 42 of the country’s 1999
Constitution and Articles 1 and 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Articles 2, 3 and 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and
Articles 2, 3 and 18(3) of the African Charter on Human Rights and Peoples Rights.From our collected statistics, Research and Investigative findings, the Government of Nigeria and the State-protected armed jihadist non-state actors are undeniably found to have grossly breached the fundamental provisions of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 (Laws of Intrastate and Interstate Armed Conflicts and the Conventions’ enabling Protocols and the International Rules of Engagement such as the Use of Force and Proportionality of it. Nigeria also gross breached the Genocide Convention of 1948 and the International Criminal Court Statute of 1998 including the Court’s criminal jurisdictions on War Crimes, Crimes against Humanity and Crimes of Genocide.
Nigeria inviolably ratified the Geneva Conventions on June 20, 1961. These political state actor, armed state actor and armed non-state actor abuses, breaches and violations are found by our Researchers and Investigators to have been rooted in Religious Persecution and its attendant international heinous crimes.Islamic Jihadists Killed 299 Peaceful Christians & Abducted 213 Others In July 2026:
According to the summary of statistics, tracked, collected and archived by our Researchers and Investigators, at least 299 defenceless and peaceful Christians were killed by Islamic Jihadists in Nigeria particularly in Benue, Plateau, Southern Kaduna, Adamawa, Niger, Taraba, among others; during which no fewer than 213 others were abducted. Available statistics further estimated that 150 mostly indigenous Hausa Muslims were killed in the same month. At least, six churches came under jihadist attack, two Catholic Seminarians abducted in Enugu and Kogi, one Catholic Priest killed and four Pastors killed or abducted. The breakdown showed that Benue State recorded the highest number of jihadist killings with 65 Christian deaths, during which 30 were abducted; followed by Southern part of Kaduna State where 58 Christians were killed and 70 others abducted, making it the State with the highest number of abducted Christians in July 2026.Plateau State came third with 55 Christian deaths and not less than 10 abducted Christians; followed by Adamawa State with 35 Christian deaths, Niger with 30 Christian deaths, Southern Kebbi with 6 Christian deaths and 18 abducted Christians. Southern Borno also recorded 20 abducted Christians, Kogi 20 abducted Christians and Edo 20 abducted Christians. There are also at least 40 Christian deaths arising from Jihadist attacks in other parts of the country including in the South-East. The above figures also included “dark figures of crime”. Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and Jihadist Fulani Bandits are also found to have taken the lead with at least 70% culpability. In the end, our Researchers and Investigators also made findings showing that average of ten Christian deaths per day and seven abducted Christians per day were recorded.
South-East Gravely & Atrociously Bleeding: According to our collected statistics, research and investigative findings, the Igbo Land South-East Nigeria is under grisly and egregious ethno- religious persecution and systematic and coordinated violent attacks by political state and armed state actors and armed non-state actors. This is to the extent that there are not less than 40 externally planted or imported violent crimes and 14-group perpetrators involved ravaging the Region since August 2015.
We wish to disclose further that before June 2015, Igbo Land South-East as a “Socio-Economic Blue-Collar Society” was only bedevilled and still bedevil by estimated 25 Traditional Street Violent Crimes perpetrated by hundreds of traditional street violent criminal syndicates or entities.Our research and investigative findings also divided the 40 externally planted or imported violent crimes and their group-perpetrators into three major categories of:
(1) political state actor and armed state actor group-perpetrators particularly the Nigerian Military, (2) government-linked armed non-state actor group-perpetrators particularly Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and externally and internally planted and funded Criminal Pro Biafra Entities; and (3) independently armed non- state actor group-perpetrators or traditional street violent criminal entities; out of which armed state actor and their linked armed non-state actor group-perpetrators are found to be the most atrocious.
In other words, Igbo Land South-East was violently troubled before the first quarter of 2015 by only 25 traditional street violent crimes and their perpetrators before August 2015 till this date. Today, the number of violent crimes in the South-East has dangerously jumped from 25 before August 2015 to 65 as at end of July 2026. The addition of 40 externally planted or imported others was brought about by internally planted malicious political class and their patrons or paymasters who also flooded the South-East Region with battalions of abusive and brutish military and police crack squad officers and personnel brutalizing, thieving and troubling the Region since 2015 and 2021 respectively. The implosive and explosive list of the 65 violent crimes bedeviling the South-East since then was also found to have arising from the emergence of externally and internally planted malicious political class desperate to perpetually remain in public offices at the expense of collective security and safety of the defenceless citizens of Igbo Land South-East and their territories and properties.
For purpose of further clarifications, violent crimes associated with political and armed state actors such as deployed security forces in the South-East, particularly the Military are categorized under Conduct-Atrocities or Atrocity-Crimes while those associated with government-linked armed non-state actors and independently armed non-state actors are categorized under Heinous Violent Crimes. Findings from our Researchers and Investigators also indicated that mishandling or poor handling of “Pro Biafra Self Determination Civil Protests” by external and internal political class and deployed armed state actors; in their desperation to strangulate and conquer Judeo-Christian Eastern Nigeria particularly the Igbo South-East-using ethno-religious radicalism and persecution also compounded the insecurity and other unsafe conditions in the Region since August 2015.
State Actor Use Of Structural And Cultural Violence To Bury South-East Butteries:In Criminology and Security Studies, ‘Structural and Cultural Violence’ are the progenitors of ‘Physical Violence’ and have been put to reckless and indiscriminate use by political state actors and armed state actors in South-East since August 2015. For the record, Structural Violence, used by political and armed state actors as insecurity method in Igbo land is sustained through gross lopsidedness and discrimination in the ethnic and religious composition of top military, police and intelligence establishment officers and their field combatants posted or stationed in the Region; found to have been steadily dominated since 2015 by Northern Muslim officers and their field combatants.
Also observed is the fact that Political and armed state actor insecurity method in the Region using Cultural Violence is sustained through reckless and indiscriminate use of false labeling, false denials, apportionment of blames on wrong parties, media censorship, ethno-religious profiling, mass and class criminalization, among others-to deny criminal responsibility in their Atrocity- Crimes or Conduct-Atrocities including mass abductions, mass killings and disappearances, etc. Cultural Violence is also aimed by political and armed state actors at escaping culpability and shielding and protecting the real criminal parties such as Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and their terror-attacks.
Disturbing Death, Abduction And Disappearance Statistics In South-East: According to Findings by our Researchers and Investigators, not less than 6000 Igbo Land South-East families have not traced alive or dead their beloved sons and daughters of productive age-brackets who went missing in the hands of the Nigerian military officers and personnel. It is also estimated that 70% of the victims were those gone missing in the hands of the military in South-East since January 2021, from where they were abducted and bundled to different military dungeons and other secret detention facilities and especially dumped inside the WAWA Military Cantonment in Kainji, Niger State. Our Researchers and Investigators also made findings estimating that 20% and 10% of the abducted and disappeared victims are those who wen missing in the hands of various crack squads of the Nigeria Police Force and officers and personnel of the State Security Services and they belonged to those unarmed civilians abducted from the East and never located alive or dead by their families or lawyers till date. Our findings above are also officially reported in several official reports issued by the Nigerian Military through the Defence Headquarters especially since January 2021 till date.
Also circumstantially found by our Researchers and Investigators was that no fewer than 5000 other unarmed citizens of the Old Eastern Nigeria abducted by trio of the military, police crack squads and internal intelligence establishment (SSS) in violent response to “Pro Biafra Self Determination Civil Protests” have not been traced alive or dead by their families or lawyers till date, covering August 30, 2015 and end of July 2026. Massive extrajudicial killings and unlawful executions; as well as custodial deaths particularly by the Nigerian Military, followed by police crack squads and other armed state actors also occurred in Igbo Land South-East, especially from August 2015 to end of July 2026. The above is to the extent that during the period, no fewer than 11,000 Judeo-Christian South-East civilians are found to have been controversially labelled and killed outside the law by officers and personnel of the Nigerian military. It should be reminded that one of the earliest military mass killings and abductions and zero whereabouts of their living or dead body persons took is found to have taken placed between Sept 11 and 14, 2017, during which more than 180 unarmed Igbo Land South-East civilians are circumstantially found to have been secretly and openly killed in Afara-Ukwu and other parts of Umuahia, Asa, Aba, Ogwe and Isiala-Ngwa in Abia State. The victims included unarmed IPOB activists and supporters, interstate, intrastate and inter-regional road travellers and other road users, etc.
Hundreds are also found to have been abducted and disappeared without traces till date. It was also in desperate bid to cover-up and suppress public outcries over the three days’ massacre and mass abductions and shocking casualty figures arisen or recorded thereto that the Nigerian Defence Headquarters hurriedly and hastily DECLARED IPOB A TERRORIST GROUP on Sept 15, 2017, leading to widespread armed state actor criminalization and terrorization of the South-East till date; and as if the above was not enough, the Nigerian military and other security agencies involvement in mass civilian abductions across the South-East have continued into the first seven months of 2026, with estimated 400 South-East Judeo-Christian civilians abducted by the military-with no traces of their whereabouts, dead or alive till date.
Records of the above are also found to have contained in official records of the weekly, bi-weekly and monthly reports of the Defence Headquarters of the Nigerian Armed Forces regarding their ongoing military operations across the country particularly in the South-East. Most of the civilians abducted by the military in the past eleven years of August 2015 to end of July 2026 are also circumstantially feared killed in custody and other torturous holding facilities, compounded by zero access of the abducted or arrested citizens to their families including total denial of their access to such military custodies or facilities. In gross breach of their constitutional limitations on procession and management of the general civilian population including lack of powers of arrest, detention, investigation and prosecution, among others; the military is found to have defiantly refused to handover the arrested or abducted civilian citizens to Nigeria Police Force.
It is in totality of the above that tens of thousands of Igbo Land South-East families withdraw from giving their beloved sons and daughters of military recruitment age and academic and professional qualifications permission to be enlisted into the Nigerian Armed Forces. We also make bold to say that the universal powers of the Nigerian military and other security and intelligence agencies to perform their sworn duties are not our problem but crude policies, processes and procedures adopted.
It is an unambiguous case of universal illegality for Nigerian military and other security agencies to have arrested alive suspected armed citizens accused of crimes and those arrested unarmed and defenceless, taken them into custody and turned around to kill them extra-judicially after having been taken into custody alive.These are also fundamental violations of war crimes or crimes against humanity, or both, as well as crimes of genocide. All of the above is also found to have been sustained by the Nigerian military, other security forces and political state actors through widespread use of false labelling, hasty/hearsay conclusions, mass criminalization, lack of credible and prosecutorial investigations, doctored, concocted and twisted intelligence, transfer of criminal responsibility, apportionmentof blames on wrong parties, ethno-religious profiling and cover-ups, among others, with intent to escape operational accountability, deny and cover-up Heinous Crimes and Atrocity-Conducts and protect criminal parties.
According to our Researchers and Investigators, 65 Political/Armed State Actor Atrocity-Crimes and Armed Non-State Actor Violent Crimes including Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen terror attacks ravaging the Igbo Land South-East are found to have been muddled, twisted and solely heaped on “IPOB/ESN”. In the area of Government-linked armed non-state Religious Violent Crimes, particularly Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen terror attacks, our Researchers and Investigators also made findings that an estimated 7000 Judeo-Christian lives have been lost since April 2016 and 200 others estimated to have been ambushed, abducted and killed on roadways and forests in seven months of January-July 2026. The no fewer than 200 South-East Judeo-Christian recorded deaths are further found to have arisen from victims of Jihadist Fulani and Jihadist Bandits’ roadway and forest way abductions and ambushes using “Seven Dangerous Traveling Routes” within and the outside South-East.
According to findings by our Researchers and Investigators, there are at least 20 rural Igbo Land communities presently facing Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen threats or terror attacks, either partly or substantially affected. The affected communities included those located across Enugu, Anambra, Imo, Abia and Ebonyi States and parts of neighbouring Delta State; out of which Ezeagu, Isi-Uzo, Uzo-Uwani and Nkanu East Local Government Areas, all in Enugu and their several villages are found to be the worst hit and adopted as Our Case-Study. In Ezeagu, not less than ten out of about 14 communities are ravaged by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen threats and attacks since 2010, risen to an apogee since 2016; likewise, in Isi-Uzo where several communities and villages including Eha-Amufu and Mgbuji have been turned into ghost towns by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen- with most shocking been burning or destruction of 14 churches including twelve Anglican and two Catholic churches and killing of at least 117 of their worshippers; out of which at least eight corpses of their worshippers were buried in one church compound alone. The Eha-Amufu Jihadist Fulani mayhem was found to have occurred between March 2021 and June 2025; which is ongoing till date. In Uzo-Uwani, at least sixteen communities or villages in the area have been sacked, uprooted and forced to flee by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen who also turned the area into ghost towns and IDP camps particularly since 2022.
All of the above are to the extent that the combined forces of the South-East Governments, the stationed security forces including military, police and internal intelligence agency (SSS), in collusion with some censored and muzzled Government-owned and private media have been mobilized to deny state vicarious responsibility/complicity, cover-up and shift the criminal responsibility from the real criminal parties (Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen) to uninvolved or wrong parties such as ‘IPOB/ESN’ and members of the Igbo Land South-East civilian population. These have been deliberately and systematically sustained using false labelling and framing-up of defenceless and unarmed South-East civilians especially members of productive male population- who are also victims of hasty and hearsay conclusions, mass criminalization, lack of credible and conclusive investigations; doctored, concocted and twisted intelligence, shifting of criminal responsibility and apportionment of blames on wrong parties, ethno-religious profiling of South-Easterners, false denials, and protection of the armed non-state actor criminal parties-
all aimed at escaping operational accountability and denial of armed non-state actors’ Heinous Crimes and political and armed state-actors’ Atrocity-Conducts.Calling For Strong International Justice And Accountability:
In view of the above, we are jointly calling for invocation of international justice and accountability processes over the raging egregious and grisly ethno-religious persecution rooted in Structural, Cultural and Physical Violence in Igbo Land South-East Nigeria. Such international expert enquiries must include comprehensive review of all operational activities of the drafted officers and personnel of the Nigerian Military and other security formations including police crack squads and internal intelligence agencies (SSS and DMI) especially those bordering on the use of force and proportionality of it (International Rules of Engagement under Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their enabling Protocols) in the law enforcement operations and procession and management of members of the general civilian population and their ethno-religious freedoms since 2015.
The international enquiries by the United Nations Human Rights and Humanitarian Body of Experts being strongly demanded should be conducted outside Nigerian Government interference, inducement or intimidation. The UN Body of Experts being called upon are: UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Extra Jus, Extra-Legal and Other Unlawful Killings or Executions (Dr. Morris Tidball-Blinz); UN Special Rapporteur on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances (Gabriella Citroni), UN Special
Rapporteur on Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Dr. Alice Jill Edwards); Office of the UN Special Rapporteur on Religious Freedom or Belief (through UN Rights High Commissioner’s appointed group of neutral experts); UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and Girl-children (Reem Alsalem);
UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Rights (Mr. Nicolas Levrat) and UN Special Rapporteur on Human Right to a Healthy and Protected Environment (Mr. David R. Boyd).Others are: UN Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Girls (Ms. Siobhan Mullallly), UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders (Ms. Bolanos Vargas). The above is in addition to UN High Commissioner for Refugees and IDPs (Barham Salih) and Head of UN Office on Disarmament Affairs (Mr Izumi Nakamitsu).
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN Rights Chief) Volker Turk is hereby called upon to put machinery in place and expeditiously dispatch the named UN Rights and Humanitarian Body of Experts to South-East and South-South Nigeria to forensically enquire into the ongoing armed state-actor and armed non-state actor butcheries and particularly ascertain the level of grievous rights abuses and violations by security forces especially Nigerian Military and armed non-state actors particularly Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen in the two regions especially in the past eleven years of August 2015 to July 2026.
Since the current political state actors and their coercive establishments in Nigeria are incurably untrustworthy and incapable of carrying out credible and independent In-Service and Out-Service investigations to fish out their abusive and unprofessional field combatants and commanders and hold them accountable for the raging Atrocity-Crimes or Conduct- Atrocities in Igbo Land South- East, we are calling for near future Igbo Land South-East political leadership’s independent Special
Judicial Commission(s) of Enquiries; akin to the Special Tribunal of Enquiry Report on Massacre of Ndigbo in 1966.
According to the Report: “The Massacre of Ndigbo in 1966: Report of the Justice G.C.M. Onyiuke Tribunal {Tollbrook Limited, Ikeja, Lagos)” “…between 45,000 and 50,000 civilians of former Eastern Nigeria were killed in Northern Nigeria and other parts of Nigeria from 29th May 1966 to December 1967 and not less than 1,627,743 Easterners fled back to Eastern Nigeria as a result of the 1966 pogrom”. Major terms of reference of such near future Special Judicial Commission(s) of Enquiries must include the number and full identities of all those abducted alive by the military and other security forces since August 2015 and bundled to undisclosed locations in faraway Northern Nigeria where they have not been traced alive or dead by their families or lawyers till date as well as full details and number of victims of extrajudicial executions and other unlawful killings. These should be unmasked through their families and lawyers’ testimonies.
Military Must Leave Unarmed Igbo Land Civilian Population Alone And Let Them Be!The authorities of the Government of Nigeria and the Nigerian security forces and their high commands including High Commands of the Nigerian Military, the Nigeria Police Force and the State Security Services must, henceforth, leave unarmed and defenseless civilian citizens of the Igbo South-East alone and let them be, stop false-labeling and criminalizing them and go after the real armed fighting parties including Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and violent criminal entities masquerading as “Pro Self Determination Groups”, whether Government-linked and self- acclaimed others as well as other Government-linked and non-Government linked armed violent entities including hired or recruited jihadist mercenaries from Niger Delta. The Nigerian military in accordance with laws and procedures establishing them and governed by Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution and the International Rules of Engagement under UN System, must hands off all matters involving members of the general civilian population especially in the South-East and South-South and allow police, constitutionally equipped in terms of Man-Mental-Machine policing-to handle cases of those accused of “traditional street violent criminalities”.
In processing and managing civilians accused of general crimes in Igbo Land South-East, the authorities of themilitary, police and SSS and their field combatants must, henceforth, desist from reckless and indiscriminate protection of the real armed parties such as Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and their violent jihadist criminal activities. The country’s security forces must also generally desist from reckless use of transfer of criminal liability, collective punishment, false labeling, ethno-religious profiling and mass/class criminalization targeted at defenseless Igbo Land citizens, leading to
widespread attacks on their defenseless properties. The authorities of the Nigerian Security Forces (NSFs) must also publicly give account of their operational activities in Eastern Nigeria or be externally questioned and forensically investigated.
The Government of Nigeria and the country’s security forces particularly Defense Headquarters of the Nigerian Military are strongly called upon to stop all forms of ethno-religious persecution of the defenseless citizens of Igbo Land South-East and their neighboring South-South, in addition to cessation of all forms of wanton destruction of their properties and annexation of their territories using the State-protected Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and allied others. The ongoing butcheries and
other internationally defined Heinous Crimes in Igbo Land South-East are found to have included:mass abductions, mass killings, unlawful executions, disappearances and criminalization and wanton destruction of properties-using false labeling, mass criminalization, class stigmatization, hasty and hearsay conclusions, among others. The Nigerian military’s conduct-atrocities at the WAWA Military Cantonment and related secret detention and torture facilities across faraway Northern Nigeria where unarmed and defenseless Igbo Land Judeo-Christian civilians in their yearly thousands are indiscriminately abducted and dumped to die or be tortured and starved to death, uninvestigated and untried; must be discontinued and such abattoir facilities closed down permanently and all their detainees freed, discharged and acquitted having been torturously held far beyond maximum constitutionally allowed timeframes. They must also be adequately compensated. One of such tearful cases is Miss Ozioma Elizabeth Onyeaka who was abducted by an Army patrol team in Nsugbe, near Onitsha since 2020 and disappeared to WAWA Military Cantonment and held in solitary confinement for more than five years. She must be freed unconditionally, fully rehabilitated and adequately compensated by the Military.
As a matter of fact, the Attorney General of the Federation should take over the matter, direct and compel the Defense Headquarters, the Office of the National Security Adviser, the National Counter Terrorism Center and the State Security Services to give full details of the whereabouts of the living body persons and the dead body persons of all those abducted alive from Igbo land South-East and neighboring South-South, and the whereabouts of the bodies of their dead sisters and brothers killed or disappeared extra-judicially particularly since January 2021. By fundamental provisions of the country’s body of criminal laws and their procedures, rooted in international best practices including the Geneva Conventions of 1949, it is a serious offence including offenses of war crimes and crimes against humanity for law enforcement officers to kill in custody armed and unarmed citizens arrested alive and taken into custody alive. This explains why the Nigerian Government and the country’s security forces particularly the military must give public account of the whereabouts of thousands of those arrested or abducted alive in the South-East and the South- South between August 2015 and end of July 2026This important call of ours is also officially rooted in official records of the Defense Headquarters, particularly from Jan 2021 till date; disclosing “number of IPOB Members/Combatants Killed and arrested in the South-East under Operation Udoka”. In other words, the Defense Headquarters of the Nigerian Military should publicly explain the exact number and full identities of thousands of Igbo Land Judeo-Christians abducted alive and those shot and injured alive and bundled to undisclosed secret locations in faraway Northern Nigeria; the number and full identities of dead body persons of those shot and killed and controversially labeled; and where they were bundled to; where, when, why and how they were killed or shot and injured or abducted and bundled away; where, when, why and how they were starved or shot and injured and left to bleed to death untreated or left to die of hunger, starvation and diseases. The Nigerian Government and its Defense Headquarters should publicly provide names (first and surnames) of the dead, the injured, the starved and the abducted civilians in Igbo Land South-East and neighboring South-South. Other
details needed to be publicly disclosed include their marital status, occupations, religion, age-bracket, gender and their village, community, local government and State of origin.
The Nigerian Defense Headquarters shall, as a matter of uttermost immediacy, abolish reckless and indiscriminate use of transfer of criminal responsibility, class criminalization, false labeling, collective punishment and ethno-religious profiling in Igbo Land South-East in the course of their Military and security forces’ law enforcements and operations; and shall also henceforth stop mass abduction and disappearances of South-East civilian citizens and their despicable transfer from Igbo Land South-East where they were abducted, to dangerous secret dungeons located thousands of miles away from Eastern Nigeria to Northern Nigeria where they are sub-humanly treated and abandoned or left in life-threatening and other tortuous conditions to die, leading to their deaths in thousands-amidst total blockade of access to their families and lawyers. The military authorities after exercising their right of arrest involving members of the general civilian population, must swiftly hand them over to various police formations in the South-East and Abuja including FCID in Abuja and SCIDs in the South-East where they were originally arrested or abducted.
End of Our Fundamental Findings
(1)Our General Research Findings Under Armed State Actor Culpability: Researchers and Investigators at International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law (Intersociety) in Nigeria and Ekwenche Research Institute and Organization in Chicago, Illinois, the United States of America have made startling findings showing that at least 6000 South-East Igbo Land Judeo- Christian families are still looking for their beloved sons and daughters or wives gone missing and never located alive or dead mainly in the hands of the Nigerian Military. Other security, intelligence and policing establishments partly found to be directly or vicariously culpable included State Security Services, Office of the National Security Adviser and its National Counter Terrorism Centre and various crack squads of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) especially those drawn from the NPF’s Bureau of Intelligence (FIB), Force Criminal Investigations Department (FCID) and Force Operations Department (F-OPS) and their subordinate departments across South-East States and their zonal commands. Our Researchers and Investigators further made findings indicating that the no fewer 6000 unarmed Igbo Land South-East Judeo-Christian civilians gone missing in a period covering January 2021 to July 2026 (seven years). Before then, too, earlier research and investigative findings indicated that approximately 5000 others have never been located alive or dead between August 2015 and December 2019- (four years).
All of the above indicated that no fewer than 11,000 Igbo Judeo-Christian civilians of South-East origin and residency are likely to have gone missing in the hands of the country’s security forces especially officers, personnel and authorities of the Nigerian Military, during periods cumulatively covering past eleven years of August 30, 2015 to July 31, 2026.
The above shocking findings are evidently backed up using a recent case study of widespread Judeo-Christian civilian abductions and disappearances in the South-East by Nigerian Military and other conspiratorial security forces including Nigeria Police Force (NPF) and its crack squads bearing different names and drawn from the Force Intelligence, the Force Criminal Investigations Department and the Force Operations Department and their subordinate departments. The State Security Services was also found to have participated or conspired in the raging armed state actor butcheries.
According to findings by our Researchers and Investigators, these heinous conduct-atrocities by Nigeria’s armed state actors are found to have been perpetrated and still being perpetrated with impunity using false labelling, mass and class criminalization, ethno-religious profiling and hasty and hearsay conclusions rooted outside credible intelligence and detailed and evidence based criminal investigations; and have been recklessly used or deployed by Nigerian Military inside the ‘WAWA’ Military Cantonment (in Niger State) and other dangerous and life-threatening prisons, lock centres and coercive secret detention centres in Northern Nigeria; located thousands of miles away from the South-East.
Such life-threatening detention facilities included those located in Abuja or the Federal Capital Territory and others in Niger, Kogi, Nasarawa, Sokoto, Kaduna and Zamfara States, etc. These draconian practices supported by no known modern human rights compliant criminal laws and their procedures and other standardized regional and international processes and principles have been deployed and targeted at South-East Judeo-Christian civilian population and their defenceless properties; resulting in “the outside the law” death of tens of thousands of unarmed civilians including more than 10,000 civilian deaths recorded in the hands of the military alone in the past eleven years and disappearance of estimated 11,000 others never located alive or dead by their families and lawyers since August 2015. Tens of billions of naira worth of defenceless civilian properties were also targeted and wantonly destroyed by the military and other armed state actors within periods under review (August 30, 2015 to end of July 2026).
While we acknowledge those lawful powers vested on Nigerian security forces including the subordinate powers of the Military under the Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution and Democratic Dispensation in management of the country’s security concerns, clearly laid out in the country’s various criminal laws and their procedures in accordance with the Constitution and regionally and internationally acceded Human Rights and Humanitarian Treaty Laws; we, however, are deeply concerned that Nigerian Governments and their security forces since June 2015 have observed and continued to observe them in gross breach by turning them upside down and in practice-replacing them with roguish practices, procedures and enforcements.This is to the extent that the clear and unambiguous provisions of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their enabling Protocols (Laws of Intrastate and Interstate Armed Conflicts) and others dealing with ‘Non-War Situation Civil Protests and Civil Disturbances’ have been breached with utter recklessness. The most worrying is that the successive Nigerian Governments and their security forces since 2015 have acted and continued to act as an “Outlaw” including by consistently undermining Nigeria’s Regional and International Human Rights and Humanitarian Obligations including by undermining the UN’s Establishment Principles of International Peace and Security. The critical aspects of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 being observed in gross breach are the International Rules of Engagement, including the Use of Force and Proportionality of it and rooted in three international war management Principles of ‘Jus In Bellum, Jus Ad Bellum and Jus Post Bellum.
Also, contrary to the clear provisions of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution particularly Sections 33, 34, 35, 36 and 42, most of the abducted and disappeared South-East Judeo-Christians are circumstantially found to be those abducted outside the knowledge of their families, without custodial statements, from where they were secretly bundled at late night and other hours of the ‘blue-law’, to life-threatening military security dungeons in Northern Nigeria. The limited operational powers of the Nigerian Military and other provisions specified in the Armed Forces Act of 2004, the Criminal Code Act and the Penal Code Act of 2004 and their Procedural Law(Administration of Criminal Justice Act of 2015) under Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution have been grossly undermined.
That is to say that officials and personnel of the Nigerian Military are found by our Researchers and Investigators to have recklessly chosen, in practice, to undermine these provisions and regional and international Human Rights and Humanitarian Treaty Laws acceded to Nigeria; to the extent that the Nigerian military establishments have been going about unchecked, abducting thousands of South-East Judeo-Christians under the pretext of “being IPOB/ESN members or supporters”. These, the Nigerian military authorities have been doing without clearly established prima facie or indictable material evidence warranting such allegations bordering on heinous criminal offence of terrorism. Military’s False Labelling Of “Killing 1,500 IPOB Combatants For 130 Recovered Weapons”:
In 2024, for instance, the Defence Headquarters stated in one of their periodic reports that: “under Operation Udoka in the South-East, (total of) 1,500 IPOB Combatants were neutralized (killed), 1,261 arrested and 130 weapons recovered between Jan 2023 and July 2024”. These numbers were calculated from various reports issued by the Defence Headquarters during their “Habeas Corpus”-styled Media Briefings. The above, a height of false labelling and mass criminalization; falsely indicates that “for every ten IPOB Combatants killed, only one weapon was recovered”; or “every ten POB Combatants engaged soldiers of the Nigerian military in exchange of gunfire with one offensive weapon”.
In other words, “ten IPOB Combatants engaged soldiers in exchange of gunfire with only one weapon, in their attempt to commit offense of terrorism and got killed in battle by soldiers”. All of the above is more so when such military reports have little or no room for credible independent questioning or verifications due very tight media censorship and stifling of Civic Space in Nigeria. Our Researchers and Investigators also made findings indicating that public display of weapons by military authorities to justify their periodic reports on military “counterterrorism” and associated mass killings and mass abductions in the South-East have been mired in controversies and series of unanswered questions. While most of the military’s displayed weapons are found to be hunting and gaming weapons such as old double-barrelled and single-barrelled guns, Dane guns and Pump Action guns, internationally excluded from the list of guns use in modern crimes of terrorism; further findings circumstantially indicated that many of those displayed weapons are those seized by the military from their licensed or former licensed owners in Igbo Land South-East, licensed for legitimate self-defence or hunting or gaming activities, Besides, such weapons are also recognized as “Un-Prohibited Firearms” in the country’s Firearms Act of 2004.
Scenes Where The Military Abduct Thousands Of South-East Judeo-Christians In Igbo Land: The abduction and disappearance of thousands of South-East Judeo-Christians in the past eleven years in Igbo Land are found to have taken place and still take place using the following conduct- atrocity methods and locations:
1. Widespread extortion and other extortionist conducts at several military roadblocks across the South-East, targeted at those unable to pay, resulting in them being brutalized and randomly labelled “IPOB/ESN members” and abducted. By law, the military roadblock extortion and related briberies are a serious breach of Section 108 of the Armed Forces Act of 2004, it is recklessly being observed in gross breach across the Region.
2. Class false labelling arrests and abductions arising from victims’ hairstyles, body tattoos, stylist clothing, bangles, necklaces, flyers, symbols, etc.
3. Late night and early morning invasion of several Igbo communities-resulting in mass shootings, abductions and disappearances; likewise, indiscriminate war-jet bombing of Igbo communities’ residential areas and associated mass abduction of those fleeing for safety.
4. Mass arrest and abduction of rural and urban Igbo civilians following attacks on military or police personnel by opposition fighting parties and street criminal armed persons.
5. Indiscriminate abduction and arrest of South-East Judeo-Christians by military and police extremists arising from Stop-and-Search across Igbo Land.
6. Widespread mass arrest and abduction of South-East Judeo-Christians arising from post-crime scene shoot-outs between military or police personnel and armed opposition fighting parties,
7. Mass arrest and abduction of South-East Judeo-Christian civilians arising from indiscriminate invasion by military and police crack squads of social gathering or entertainment arenas including nightclubs, football fields and international football match watching centres; likewise, invasion and disruption of church activities including live church services and daytime and night-time crusades, and
8. Indiscriminate brutalization, abduction and disappearance of rural and traveling South-East Judeo-Christians arising from use of excess and crude force by drafted military and police crack squad officers and personnel guarding mineral resources locations and routes. These are just but a few.
Further found by our Researchers and Investigators is the fact that after bundling the South-East Judeo-Christian civilians in their thousands to Northern Nigeria’s secret security dungeons, lock- centres and prisons (through roguish transfers); located thousands of miles away from Igbo Land where they were arrested without records, they further ended up being dumped without traces and knowledge of their families, with official records concerning them nowhere to be found. In other words, there are no available official records as per their surnames, age brackets, gender, marital status, next-of-kin, occupation and village, community, local government and State of origin; and also no official records as per where, when, how and why they were arrested and identities of security officers that arrested them and those officers in charge of investigating them and reasons why they are being investigated, if any.
This is to the extent that in August and Sept 2024, our field undercovers were sent to Keffi 1 and Keffi 11 Prisons or Correction Centres in Nasarawa State-where more than 60 South-East abducted Judeo-Christian civilians were discovered. On further enquiries, our field undercovers were confidentially informed by prisons officials who pleaded anonymity that “they were ordered not to allow the victims access to any lawyer or family member because they were brought by the military with a matching order to them that they are Federal Government property”. Our field undercovers were further informed that “they were brought from the East and dumped here without case files containing their names, where they were arrested and by which coercive establishments, as well as when and why they were arrested and alleged offenses warranting their arrest”.
In furtherance of our field undercover enquiries, using as a case-study the two Keffi prisons and Wawa Military Cantonment in faraway Kainji part of Niger State, the largest landmass State in Nigeria with more than 76,000km2 (roughly three times the size of the entire South-East Region), we instructed our field undercovers to locate an awaiting trial inmate in one of the Keffi prisons so as to use him or her to reach out to one of the victims, from whom it was gathered that the victims were transferred to several security dungeons across the East before being blinded-folded and landed in the Keffi prisons without their families’ and official records; during which scores especially the shot and critically wounded and the starved died in custodial transit or substantive security dungeons-and their dead body persons disposed like dead fowls without records till date.
Many others were also circumstantially found to have died of untreated gunshot wounds, hunger and starvation, diseases and other terminal illnesses in different military and other security dungeons in the East. Several deaths were also believed to have occurred among those abducted, blindfolded or face-bagged during the hours of the blue-law, to faraway Northern Nigeria, where they reportedly died following untreated gunshot wounds and other custodial harsh treatments while on military guarded transit to their final locations especially at Wawa Military Cantonment.
All of the above is contrary to the status and procession of a criminal person under United Nations and its International Law provisions applicable and enforceable in Nigeria as a Member-State since October 7, 1960. By the International Criminal Law Principles, a Criminal Person is anybody that has globally attained 18 years of age who violates criminal laws generally categorized under ‘mala inse’ and ‘mala prohibita’, applicable, operable and enforceable in his or her country or state or province of birth or naturalization or residency. Such a citizen is not a criminal person until he or she has been subjected to processes of credible suspicion and detailed investigation; resulting in his or her constitutional arrest and detention, credible indictmennt, fair trial and fair hearing and punishment; and adequate compensation, if he or she is, in the end, discharged and acquitted. In Nigeria and in the instant case, these laid down principles, procedures and processes have been observed in breach with impunity and recklessness by Nigerian military and other armed state actors involved in the South-East.
A Case Of Military’s Conduct-Atrocities At WAWA Cantonment In Niger State:
Testimonies and other pieces of evidence obtained by our Researchers and Investigators including from human rights attorneys, human rights activists and international rights groups such as the US based Human Rights Watch and others conversant with the WAWA Military Cantonment Killing Field and Torture Chamber maximally deployed against the abducted South-East Judeo-Christian civilian citizens. According to survivors’ accounts, many of the abducted victims from Igbo Land South-East have been killed or tortured or starved to death at the Cantonment while dozens of others subjected to military’s kangaroo and flawed trials and secretly convicted and imprisoned for life or 40 years or not less than 20 years for “involvement in IPOB terrorism”.
Contrary to Sections 33,34, 35 and 36 AND 42 of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution and their subordinate provisions in the procedural Administration of Criminal Justice Act of 2015-and Nigeria’s Human Rights and Humanitarian Treaty Laws; the Igbo Land victims inside the Cantonment are found to have been held outside the law for more than five years and above. As if that was not enough, 99.9% of them did not have access to their families and independently chosen attorneys or medical doctors and medical facilities. While many of them in estimated thousands since 2015 or 2021 have died owing to custodial sub-human treatments, hundreds of others who managed to survive have either been secretly tried, convicted and inhumanly jailed without fair hearing and fair trial, of still facing “ex-parte” or one-sided and flawed court trials oroutside the law criminal proceedings. Also found undeniable was the fact that out of every ten WAWA Military Cantonment Igbo Judeo-Christian survivors, ten are found to be tortured in custody while most are found to have no idea of the offenses leveled against them.
Pathetic Case Of Ozioma Elizabeth Onyeaka Held In WAWA Cantonment For Over Five Years:
One of the most agonizing and pathetic cases was that of Miss Onyeaka Ozioma Elizabeth, a young female in her early 20s as at 2020. According to findings from a Human Rights Attorney, Ozioma Elizabeth has spent more than five years and three months inside WAWA Military Cantonment dungeon in faraway Niger State after gone missing since 2020. Now looking terimnally sick, emaciated, starved, malnourished and tortured; and having survived harvests of custodial deaths and routine torture inside the Cantonment; she was sighted in Abuja in June 2026 as one of the few survivors undergoing secret “terrorism trials” being prosecuted by Office of the Attorney General of the Federation, SSS and Legal Department of the Nigerian Military.
Our Researchers and Investigators were also informed that Ozioma Elizabeth was one of those being forced to plead guilty of belonging to IPOB and promised freedom once they pleaded. It was from the WAWA Military Cantonment that she was brought alongside others to Abuja for continuation of secret terrorism trials in June 2026 and despite being forced to plead “guilty”, she refused and was landed in heavily guarded military trucks that brought her alongside others and briefly held in nearby prisons from where they were bundled back to WAWA Military Cantonment in Kainji, Niger State in North-Central Nigeria. The Human Rights Attorney who was one of those disallowed by the authorities of Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Justice from entering independent appearances for the victims especially Miss Ozioma Elizabeth Onyeaka; took further steps to speak to her in the prisons where she alongside others were briefly held, only for the Human Rights Attorney to shockingly discover she was
abducted by a military patrol team in early morning of a certain date in a certain month of 2020 around Nsugbe-Onitsha 33 in Anambra State-while returning from an early morning church activity. It was from there that she got disappeared without traces since 2020. When contacted by the Human Rights Attorney, her mum instantly became unconscious and developed high blood pressure.
Her siblings also told the Human Rights Attorney that they had gone to several places and quarters in search of her in the past five years and later gave up hopes. It was also reported that her family members cried profusely during telephone calls with the Human Rights Attorney when they heard the news. As it stands now, Miss Ozioma Elizabeth Onyeaka has, again, been abducted and disappeared by the Military. Our Researchers and Investigators further gathered that the ongoing secret terrorism trials are ethno-religously biased and conducted in total disregard to the fundamental provisions of the Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution and related provisions in the country’s acceded Human Rights and Humanitarian Treaty Laws.
The Constitutional provisions in gross breach include Sections 33 (right to life), 34 (right to dignity of human person and freedom from torture), 35 (right to personal liberty), 36 (right to fair hearing and fair trial), 38 (right to freedom of worship, conscience and thought) and 42 (right to freedom from discrimination on the grounds of religion and ethnicity). Apart from the fact that the victims have permanently been denied access to their families, lawyers and doctors for more than five years to ten years, they have also never been tried tried in open court or allowed to choose lawyers of their own choice and freedom to prepare for their own defense. No credible and detailed investigations involing them also took place. The most shocking, according to independent attorneys observing the flawed trials by proxy, was that Nigerian Government solely drafted prosecuting attorneys and defence attorneys and totally excluded independent attorneys from making appearances for the flawed trial victims. Shocking details were independently obtained by our Researchers and Investigators regarding constant court-room harassments and bashings faced by victims facing the flawed trials especially in the hands of SSS Legal Department, officials of the Federal Ministry of Justice and their prosecuting attorneys, the drafted trial court judges, the drafted security personnel and “defense attorneys” drated from Nigerian Government’s owned Legal Aid Council, drafted to “defend” the victims facing the flawed trials.
Such joint secret court-room harassments and bashings are handed down to the victims whenever such victims dare to plead not guilty. There are also no presentation of witnesses and circumstantial evidence by prosecutors especially in cases involving the abducted South-East Judeo-Christian civilians controversially accused of terrorism by being “IPOB members or supporters”. Further found was the fact that the Igbo Land abducted victims facing such flawed trials are given zero opportunities to get independent defense attorneys represent them or given adequate opportunities to prepare for their defense, assemble and present their own witnesses. As if these flawed processes were not enough, the victims facing such flawed trials are deceitfully told to plead guilty and get freed or clemencies, only for those that pleaded guilty to be randomely sentenced to jail terms ranging from life jails to 20 years for being IPOB members or supporters. With such victims having been permanently disconnected from their families, lawyers and doctors, they are secretly bundled from one Northen security dungeon to another to serve their so called “jail terms”, still without access to their families, lawyers and doctors from the time of their arrest or abduction since five years till date. The wherabouts of those “jailed
victims” and others “in awaiting trial” have remained unaccounted for, to the extent that no South-East Family or independent attorney has been able to locate or trace any till date. In other words, those undergoing flawed terrorism trials and those serving “jailed terms”, abducted from Igbo Land South-East since 2015 and 2021 are most unlikely to return to their families now or in future.Analyzing Recent Human Rights Watch Report:
The Human Rights Watch, USA, in its Special Report of Wednesday July 22, 2026, titled: “Nigerian Terrorism (Boko Haram) Trials Ineffective, Flawed”. The Report observed: “The Nigerian authorities’ prosecution of Boko Haram suspects does not advance justice for serious international crimes, as the cases continue to target primarily low-level suspects and raise significant fair-trial concerns”. That “Trials were conducted without witnesses or circumstantial evidence…and legal defense provided by the government appeared inadequate”. That “Nigerian authorities should ensure that all terrorism trials (especially against the abducted South-Eastern civilians) comply with international fair trial and due process standards, including basing prosecutions on credible and sufficient evidence, and guaranteeing
adequate time and facilities to prepare a defense”. Human Rights Watch also observed 10 cases involving the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a separatist movement in southeast Nigeria… In all cases Human Rights Watch observed, prosecutors did not present witnesses or circumstantial evidence to substantiate the alleged charges, which were in some cases ambiguous
Background Of HRW Findings:
The Human Rights Watch (HRW) had found that “recent phases of terrorism trials were held at the Federal High Court in Abuja from April 8 to 11 and June 15 to 18, with 10 judges hearing cases simultaneously in separate courtrooms. Human Rights Watch observed proceedings in five of these courtrooms on April 9 and 10 and June 17 and 18, monitored reporting on the trials, and interviewed a government official involved in the proceedings. Human Rights Watch also wrote to relevant government institutions involved in the trials, including the Federal Ministry of Justice and the Legal Aid Council of Nigeria, seeking responses to questions and concerns about the trials. The Legal Aid Council of Nigeria and the director of public prosecution, on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Justice, have responded According to media reports, during the 4 days of trial hearings in April, the judges found 386 defendants guilty of terrorism-related crimes, including participation in Boko Haram attacks on civilians, and ordered sentences ranging from 5 years to life in prison. The court adjourned 112 other cases until June. During the June proceedings, the court heard cases involving 490 defendants on the first day and an additional 84 on the second day, according to media reports. and lacking crucial information like the specific date and details of the alleged offense.” Link: https://www.eurasiareview.com/23072026-nigeria-boko-haram-trials-ineffective-flawed-hrw-says/
Names Of Abducted Igbo Judeo-Christians In WAWA Cantonment Jailed Outside Due Process:
According to findings from our Researchers and Investigators, the following six abducted Igbo South-East Judeo-Christian civilians who survived harvests of custodial deaths inside the WAWA Military Cantonment in faraway Niger State were labeled “members of IPOB” and jailed in 2024 in secret trials without access to their families and lawyers of their own and outside witnesses and circumstantial evidence as well as open and fair trial and fair-hearing. They included: David Ogbonna, Emmanuel Ariwuzo, Uchenna Nwaoha, Richard Ngonadi, Vincent Emeka Ibe and Victor Chidi. Names Of Nine Igbo Victims Recently (2026) Jailed Or Forced To Admit Guilty Outside The Law: According to Human Rights attorneys who spoke to Intersociety, at least eight Igbo Land Judeo- Christian abductees bundled to WAWA Military Cantonment in faraway Niger State in North- Central Nigeria since 2021 were recently (June 2026) tried under controversial circumstances including being coerced to plead “guilty”.
They included:
Chidiebere Luke Echefu detained since 2021 in SSS pleaded not guilty, Chidiebere Christian Ugwu detained 2024 in SSS pleaded not guilty, Nnabuike Romanus Erikeigwe detained 2025 pleaded not guilty but was coercively recorded as having pleaded guilty and was sentenced 20 years, Ferdinand Uchenna Ede detained 2022, forced to plead guilty and sentenced 20 years, Azoribe Samuel Onu, detained since 2023 and forced to plead guilty, Ndukwe Kalu Iroha, detained since 2024 and forced to plead guilty,
Okolo Godwin Ejiofor detained since 2024 and forced to plead guilty and Abel Onyekachi Michael, mentally and physically tortured and has a psychiatric case and forced to plead guilty. He is from Udenu Local Government Area of Enugu and jailed Life imprisonment; and
9. Miss Elizabeth Ozioma Onyeaka. She was abducted in Nsugbe near Onitsha by an Army patrol team, disappeared and bundled to WAWA Military Cantonment and is presently standing flawed trial, after having been seized outside her family and lawyer’s knowledge for more than five years.
List Of Christians Abducted In Igbo Land And Killed In Custody At WAWA Military Cantonment In 2024:
They included: Philip Uchenna, Chidiebere Dennis, Ekene Williams, Uchenna Gideon, Ekene Peter, Chinemezue, Zebrom, Chukwuemeka, Obioma and Ogechi. Identities Of Barr Awoke Colleagues Abducted At Lokoja And Disappeared At WAWA Cantonment: Recall that Barr Awoke Pius, an Abakiliki based legal practitioner and eight others returning with him from Abuja to the East using a commercial vehicle were abducted by SSS operatives in July 2021 along the Murtala Muhammed Bridge in Lokoja, Niger State. They were ambushed after attending a Court session in Abuja involving Nnamdi Kanu matter; and bundled to WAWA Military Cantonment in faraway Niger State from the SSS Headquarters and detained sub-humanly for three years (July 2021 to July 2024). Upon his release in July 2024 following several outcries from the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), among others, Barr Awoke David granted a media interview, disclosing that “many Igbo civilian detainees abducted from the East have died inside WAWAMilitary Cantonment” and that “eight persons arrested with him and bundled to WAWA Military Cantonment “have never been located alive”. He gave their names as:
“Fortune Okezie, Chinedu Nwoba, Eze Joseph, David Ogbonnaya, Ajah Joseph, Igwe Johnson, Kenneth Ojima and Wisdom Ezika Nwambana; and that only Citizen Chinonso Onyeibe, a Final Year Engineering Student of the Ebonyi State University came out with him alive; bearing scars and signs of mental and physical torture.34 Igbo Land Abducted Judeo-Christians Dumped To Die At WAWA Cantonment As At End Of 2024:
They included: Enyinna Edom, Chidiebere Roland, Joseph Obenyi, Okezie Fortune, Ojuma Kenneth, Ezike Wisdom, Okafor Joseph, Ajah Joseph Ogbonnaya, David Ogbonnaya, Ugochukwu Okafor, Igwe Joseph, Baba Mufu, Nathaniel Odumbe, Chidi Victor Obi, Dominic Wave, Kufer Sandy, Nduka Idika, Chinedu Nwoba, Ozoemena Nwokoye, Napoleon Bassey Ikpi, Chimezie Nwogu, Chimezie Ayama, Uchenna Ogaraba, Uchenna Mbeta, God’s Power Amen, Asukwo Emmanuel, Chinonoso Obinali, Raphael, Ikechukwu, Philip, Sixstus, Basil, Success and Chigbo-Ogu.
30 Igbo Land Abducted Judeo-Christians Bundled To WAWA By Military And SSS As “IPOB Members”:
Discovered by our Researchers and Investigators through Human Rights Attorneys conversant with ongoing persecution of Igbo Land Judeo-Christians using “IPOB/ESN Membership” as a pretext and done outside due process, was a declassified transfer letter from the Nigerian Army to the SSS authorities in Abuja, dated March 23, 2022. The declassified letter was titled: “Transfer of Boko Haram and IPOB Terrorist Suspects to the Nigerian Army”.
Names Of 20 Igbo Land abducted Judeo-Christians In The Declassified Inter-Agency Transfer List:Igwe Johnson Dike, Odo John Adoga, Sunday Chizoba Cornelius, Ndubusi Emmanuel Nweke, Arinze Ifeanyi Thomas, Ikechukwu Chukwu Nwaite, Calista Ogochukwu Ifedi (female) and Sunday Ifedi. The husband and her wife were abducted by SSS in Enugu on Nov 23, 2021, labeled “IPOB Members” and bundled to SSS Headquarters in Abuja and held incommunicado for four months and secretly transferred to WAWA Military Cantonment in faraway Niger State in 2022. The wife, Calista Ogochukwu Ifedi, accused of “selling food to IPOB Members in custody” and was killed in 2025 at WAWA Military Cantonment. Advocacy pressures from several rights groups including Amnesty International later forced the Nigerian authorities to free her Husband, Sunday Ifedi in December 2025 after held incommunicado for three years amidst torture, starvation and denial of medical treatment at SSS Headquarters and WAWA Military Cantonment.
Also among the 30 in the list of Igbo Land Judeo-Christian abductees in the declassified inter-agency transfer list are:Joy Godwin (Idara Gold), Paul Okechukwu, Chuchukwu Dim, Ifesinashi Raphael Chinaka, Chidiebere Luke Echefu, Malachy Nwokwu, Henry Ikechukwu, Gift Nwali, Uchechukwu Francis, Ebuka, Obinna Okpara and Chibuike Chinonye. In another inter-agency secret transfer list, also obtained by our Researchers and Investigators in October 2024; dated February 21, 2023 and referenced: “List of Terrorist Suspects Forwarded for Trial in WAWA Military Holding Facility”, the following Igbo Land abducted Judeo-Christians were included and labeled “IPOB Terrorist Suspects”: I. Ubah, U. Okoronkwo, I. M. Nduka, N.A. Okenna, Ike Basiya, Frank Okpo, N.D. Okorie, Emelie U. Ibe, Success Johnson, Conference Ludlaw and John O. Orji. Till date (January 2021-July 2026), most, if not the names highlighted above are still denied access to their families, whether they are dead or have survived.Our Star Reference: NIGERIA: OCEAN OF INNOCENT BLOOD FLOWING IN THE EAST https://intersociety-ng.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/NIGERIA-OCEAN-OF-INNOCENT-BLOOD-FLOWING-IN-THE-EAST-oringinal_11zon.pdf (Enugu Nigeria:
December 2024) Military’s Admission Of Mass Killings And Abductions In Igbo Land South-East Using “IPOB” As A Pretext: The Nigerian Military, represented by the Defense Headquarters are found to have technically and circumstantially admitted carrying out mass killings and abductions using “IPOB/ESN Terrorism” as a pretext, especially between January 2021 and December 2025; and have been continued into the first seven months (Jan-July 2026) of 2026. According to reports of the Nigerian Defense Headquarters, tracked and archived by our Researchers and Investigators, the Nigerian Military in its Report of June 27, 2024 (“shallow graves in South-East”), reported that “troops of Operation Udoka killed 180 IPOB/ESN members and combatants, arrested 354 IPOB/ESN criminals…”. In another Report released in September 2024, the Defense Headquarters claimed that: “troops of Operation Udoka Killed 180 IPOB combatants and arrested and detained 300 others between July and August 2024…”.
General analysis of Defense Headquarters’ reports further indicated that troops of Nigerian Military’s Operation Udoka in South-East killed not less than “1,500 IPOB members” outside the law and due process in 20 months of Jan 2023 and August 2024, arrested and detained at least 1,261 others”. The Nigerian Defense Headquarters also announced the arrest and detention of 1,545 persons in the South-South and killing of 644 (mainly Igbo Judeo-Christian others) under the same 20 months of January 2023 to end of August 2024; with estimated 800 most likely to be citizens of Igbo Judeo- Christian origin.Sadly, our Researchers and Investigators monitored and observed that such arrests and detention by the Military are ultra vires, extra jus, extrajudicial and extralegal-having been conducted outside the constitutionally required inter-agency transfer of the arrested citizens to Nigeria Police Force; thereby fueling fears of massive extrajudicial killings arising from excessive use of force, military brutalities, jungle justice and ethno-religious profiling. Further discovered was the fact that there are no verifiable official records showing that those arrested were released to their families; or transferred to the Police for proper investigations or discharged and acquitted in the end. Under Nigeria’s general body of criminal laws and their procedures, Nigerian Military do not have general police powers over civilians or police officers, but can arrest and hand over the arrested citizens to the police immediately. According to a recent Abuja Federal High Court judgment, military cannot arrest, detain, investigate and prosecute civilians in Nigeria.
(2)Our General Research Findings Under State Actor Conspiracy:
Political And Armed State Actors’ Cultural Violence Of Turning Multiplicity Of Violent Crimes In Igbo Land South- East Into “IPOB/ESN Insurgency/Terrorism”: Our Researchers and Investigators made findings indicating that for purposes of advancement of ‘Cultural Violence in the Nigerian Security Forces (NSFs) ongoing ‘internal security operations’ in Eastern Nigeria, populated by more than 95% Judeo-Christians and attendant armed state actor mass killings, abductions and disappearances; the multiplicity of violent crimes bedevilling the Region have been deliberately and systematically unified and turned into “IPOB/ESN Insurgency/Terrorism in South-East”. This is to the extent that they have been dangerously used as a pretext to widen and escalate the atrocious conducts of the drafted security forces, rooted in Structural and Physical Violence including mass killings, abductions and disappearances as well as cover-ups and protection of Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and their terror activities in the Region, particularly in Igbo Land South-East.
In our 280-Page Our Mother Report of December 22, 2024 (OCEAN OF INNOCENT BLOOD FLOWING IN EASTERN NIGERIA), Research and Investigative findings were made showing that
South-East and its neighbouring South-South have been bedevilled by multiplicity of violent crimes, majorly divided into armed state actor atrocity-crimes or conduct atrocities and armed non-state actor violent crimes. The Intersociety Research Report further found that other than traditional street violent crimes and a handful of sub-national political and vigilante violent crimes and police custodial and roadblock brutalities, other violent crimes bedevilling the Region of the Igbo Land South-East are found to have been externally and internally planted by national and sub-national political class.
While the external political class especially under Buhari Administration (2015-May 2023) are found to have desperately vowed to strangulate and conquer the Old Eastern Nigeria including South-East and South-South on the ground of radical religion (State and Nomadic Jihadism); the planted internal political class were found to have desperately needed political offices, forcing them to do the desperate and conquest biddings of their federal political paymasters and patrons. Mishandling or poor handling by political state actors and armed state actors, of ‘IPOB Self-Determination Civil Street Protests’ also escalated and worsened the security situation in the Old Eastern Region particularly the South-East.
Apart from violent clampdowns and crackdowns that followed, especially between August 2015 and December 2019, including mass abductions, disappearances and open and secret killings; the planted internal political class were found to have been contracted by their national political paymasters and patrons to counterfeit Self-Determination agitation and agitators-particularly after the December 2020 formation of “the Eastern Security Network” by the mainstream Pro Biafra Group, resulting in the formation of “Ebubeagu Counter Security Network” or “Vigilante Group” and numerous groups of ‘Counter Biafra Agitators’. That was also the beginning of flooding of the South-East and South-South with battalions of unprofessional military and crack police officers and personnel and their war-grade arms and ammunitions, dating back to July 30, 2015. Under the cover and protection of the drafted unprofessional security forces, jihadist groups led by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen are also found to have been allowed to make incursions into the South-East and South-South forests, bushes and farmlands, generally since 2016.
Below is the list of over 40 externally planted violent crimes bedevilling the Igbo Land South- East since 2015 and their armed 14 group-perpetrators involved:
(1) Armed State Actor Violent Crimes Against South-East Civilians: Military conduct-atrocities including indiscrimination house invasions, war-jet bombing of civilian homes and attendant human and property casualties, mass killings, abductions, disappearances, extrajudicial and other unlawful killings or executions; and small arms-based wanton destruction of civilian houses and other properties, unlawful killings and abductions involving protection of oil and other solid mineral facilities; among others. SSS conduct-atrocities: including indiscriminate arrests, abductions and tortuous and other unlawful detention and possible custodial killings. Police Crack Squads’ conduct-atrocities: including indiscrimination house invasions, mass killings, abductions, disappearances, extrajudicial and other unlawful killings or executions; and wanton destruction of civilian houses and other properties, among others; same goes for “Joint Security Taskforces (JTFs)”.
Contrary to wide powers, duties and responsibilities granted to the Nigeria Police Force by the country’s body of criminal, civil and procedural laws, officers and personnel of the Force in the South-East are found to have crudely and unprofessionally joined the military in their crude and unprofessional use of force, owing to their constitutional limitations in matters of general procession of members of the civilian population in civil and criminal matters involving them. The above cowardly and crude act of the Police officers and personnel is found to have been rooted in exhibition of inter-agency false gallantry and warding off of inter-agency inferiority complex.
(2) Externally Planted Armed Non-State Actor Violent Crimes In The South-East:
Ebubeagu Counter South-East Security Network: Their violent criminal activities including mass murders, aggravated assaults and attempted murders, secret killings, abductions, disappearances, political brigandage/terrorism, sexual harassment and violence, wanton destruction of civilian properties, among others. Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and allied jihadists: Their jihadist terror attacks including systematic open killings and secret killings arising from ambushes and abductions, kidnappings-for-ransom, kidnappings-for-sexual pleasure, kidnappings-for-Islamic conversion, property looting and pillaging, wanton destruction of properties, sexual violence including abominable opposite and same-sex rape, infliction of fears and terror on defenceless South-East Judeo-Christian population, among others. There are also externally and internally procured Externally and Ixternally Procured Niger Delta Islamic jihadist conquest mercenaries:
They are investigated and circumstantially found to have belonged to ex Niger Delta militancy leaders flooding the South-East forests and other strategic locations and engaging in series of subversive and counterfeit violent activities; with intent to criminalize self-determination activities and heaped the blames on self-determination agitators; with intent to terrorize and worsen the externally planted insecurity and other man-made unsafe conditions in Igbo Land South-East. Recruited Armed Political Mercenaries from South-South: Their heinous crimes including targeted and hit-and-run violent crimes using creeks and waterlines-for deadly political reasons; with intent to create panics and confusions and heap the blame same on wrong parties including “IPOB/ESN”. Subversive and False-Flagged Operations: secretly coordinated by subversive elements within the country’s special security operatives, with intent to impersonate, counterfeit and criminalize the activities of the descent entities or persons.
There are also: Renegades from Pro Biafra Groups:
They are dropped-out members of the armed wing of the mainstream Pro Biafra movement and their nefarious conducts including seizing weapons allocated to them or gaining access to new ones with which they have become outlaws and engaged in violent crimes especially kidnap-for-ransom and ritualism, etc. Externally Planted Counterfeit Biafra Agitators: They include those bought-over and armed by internally planted political malicious class and their external patrons or paymasters and assigned to violently counterfeit the activities of the mainstream Pro Biafra groups including mass killings and abductions; with intent to counterfeit and criminalize the mainstream groups and apportion culpability or heap blames on them.
Armed State Actor-protected armed Controversial Biafra Agitators: Their violent criminal activities in the South-East including snatching of exotic cars and kidnaping-for-ransom, among others; perpetrated within the prime eyes of security agencies. Armed Mainstream Pro Biafra Agitators-2021-2022: Their unlawful criminalities including killing or injuring of defenceless civilians during exchanges of gunfire with security forces or targeted attacks on some civilian citizens
falsely or rightly accused of “giving or leaking information” to conventional security agencies and revenge attacks against conventional security agencies and their facilities especially between 2021 and 2022.
Below is the list of more than 25 traditional street violent crimes not included in the list, indicating that the 40 externally planted violent crimes and their 14 group-perpetrators in the South-East did not include Traditional Street Violent Crimes, numbering more than 25 and perpetrated by hundreds of armed group-perpetrators or individual violent crimes’ syndicates or entities. In the list include: armed robbery, car-jacking, premeditated homicide, aggravated assault, attempted murder, cultism, arms trafficking, trafficking in persons, arson, vandalism, burglary, house-breaking, violent property grabbling, rape and other violent sexual assaults, kidnapping-for-ransom, ritualism, intra and inter-communal violence, ritualism including organ harvesting, violent phone snatching, violent internet fraud, violent car snatching, among others.
(3) Our General Research Findings Under State Actor Complicity And Conspiracy:
Our Findings have further indicated that Igbo Land South-East is injuriously bleeding under the present South-East Sub-National Governments, particularly territories, citizens and properties under governance eyes of those in charge of Enugu, Imo, Ebonyi and Anambra. Conspiratorially, military, police and intelligence establishments
stationed in the Region including their officers, personnel and high commands have chronically turned blind eyes and done nothing while the Igbo Land South-East bleeds and is placed in a detonative jihadist time-bomb by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and their allies; to the extent that the time-bomb is steadily and dangerously ticking across major nooks and crannies of the Region; and has increasingly manifested and still manifests capability of detonating and enveloping the Region in no distant time. As a matter of fact, Igbo Land South-East and South-South Regions are under Raging Nomadic Jihadism.
Findings made showed that the Igbo Land South-East has recorded annual average of 700 Judeo-Christian deaths since the Ukpabi-Nimbo Jihadist Fulani massacre of April 2016 in Enugu State; killing at least 48 rural Christians. In other words, no fewer than 7000 Igbo Land South-East Judeo- Christian lives have been lost in the hands of Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen alone in past ten years of April 2016 to July 2026; out of which estimated 70% involved secret killings such as deaths arising from ambushes and abductions targeted at Igbo Land South-East travellers within and outside the South-East. The remaining 30% deaths are estimated to have been recorded from open attacks and killings involving jihadist invasion of Igbo homes, farmlands and other settlements.
Our Researchers and Investigators also estimated that from April 2016 to December 2024, “6,500 Igbo Land Judeo-Christians were killed by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and allied others in Igbo parts of South-East and South-South-between April 2016 and December 2024”. Further findings indicated that there had been records of sporadic
Fulani Herdsmen incursions and attacks across the South-East Region before the April 2016 Ukpabi-Nimbo Jihadist Herdsmen attack. Under the conspiracy and protection of the country’s security forces, Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen incursions and attacks across the Eastern Rainforests were independently recorded to have started in late 2015; recording 13 occupied locations as at August 2015; from where the number rose to estimated 139 occupied locations in August 2019; 350-400 in 2020; and over 800 as of end of July 2026.
The increase in the number of these Fulani settlements and occupations was as a result of Federal Government of Nigeria’s funded and enforced country-wide “Fulani Herdsmen settlement and artificial community policy including grants of billions of naira to each of the willing South-East and South-South States to create new Fulani RUGA and related Settlements by seizing and ceding communal Igbo lands. With a case-study of Benue, Plateau, Taraba and Southern Kaduna, these settlements and occupations have been converted to bases for Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen widespread attacks on Christian areas and communities and have become the root cause of the ongoing Nomadic Jihadism across Nigeria.
Our Researchers and Investigators have made findings showing that Abductions, Disappearances and Deaths arising from ‘secret jihadist attacks’ (70% of the total jihadist attacks) in Igbo Land have arisen from Islamic Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen ambushes and abductions targeted at Igbo Land Judeo-Christian travellers using the following seven jihadist Fulani Herdsmen routes, locations and occupations:
1. “Fulani Invaded and Occupied or Ceded or Procured Igbo Communal Forests,
2. Fulani Invaded and Occupied or Ceded or Procured Igbo Land Communal Bushes,
3. Fulani Invaded and Occupied or Ceded or Procured Igbo Land Communal Farmland Settlements,
4. Fulani Invaded and Occupied or Ceded or Procured Igbo Land Forests belonging to Ancient Igbo Deities or Oracles,
5. Fulani Invaded and Occupied Non-Igbo Forests, Bushes and Farm Settlements located at Igbo Boundary Areas with Others,
6. Vicinities and areas or communities close to major Military and Police Formations located in the Region-including the Army/Navy/Air Force formations in places like in Owerri, Owerre-Nta, Ogbaru, Oguta, Ohafia, Asaba, Amansea, Abakiliki, Enugu, Awkunanaw and their neighboring Elele, Asaba, Agbor, Ogoja, among others;
7. Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen Occupied Forests and Bushes located within the South-East neighbors and outside others including in Edo, Ondo, Ogun, Kaduna, Kogi,Nasarawa, Benue-Taraba routes, Kaduna-Abuja routes and Lagos-Abuja routes, etc., where traveler-South-Easterners are waylaid, abducted and ransomed, or abducted and killed or disappeared untraced.
Saddest, Most Shocking And Disappointing:
It is the finding of our Researchers and Investigators that there are maddening political state actors and armed state actors’ conspiracy and complicity in the ongoing Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen terror in Igbo Land South-East and Igbo parts of the South-South. There are Structural Violence, Physical Violence and Cultural Violence dimensions in the highlighted dastardly roles of these state actors. Such state actor conspiracy and complicity are recklessly perpetrated using false denials, suppression of facts, false labelling, ethno-religious profiling, mass criminalization, transfer of criminal responsibility, protection of the criminal parties, shifting of criminal liability from criminal parties to wrong parties, doctored intelligence and concocted and inconclusive investigations and cover-ups, etc.
In Criminology and Security Studies, political state actors and armed state actors’ constant denial of criminal responsibility involving criminal parties such as Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and their terror attacks in Igbo Land South-East Nigeria and apportionment or shifting of blames or criminal responsibility to wrong parties, whether criminal entities or the innocent, is very dangerous and has capacity to deepen and escalate such heinous crimes; to the extent that while Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen remain untracked and intensifying and saturating their jihadist terror activities at their targets, political state actors and armed state actors are busy living in perpetual denials and apportionment of blames to the wrong or innocent parties. According to our Researchers and Investigators, these have become deliberate policies or policy directions of the Igbo Land Sub-National Governments and stationed security forces especially in Enugu, Anambra, Imo and Ebonyi States.
In Anambra, Prof Chukwuma Soludo led Government has consistently and falsely denied the presence and terror of the Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and their secret terror in Anambra State; yet the State Government under him was publicly named in 2025 as one of the South-East States involved in multibillion deal with Federal Government of Nigeria to cede large expanse of communal land for permanent Fulani Settlements across the State. The Governor had also in 2025 falsely declared that “there are no Fulani Herdsmen kidnappers anywhere in the South-East forests except Christian kidnappers. In 2024, the State Government refused to attend to a distress call following abduction and raping by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen of a couple (husband and wife) inside Ukwulu Forest.
The State Government reportedly got angry and refused to act because the victims did not falsely blame “IPOB or Eastern Security Network” for their ordeal. Evidently, on Sunday, August 1, 2026, the Anambra State Police Command announced the rare arrest of two Anambra forest-based jihadist kidnappers: Dauda Mohamad and Umar Ali who abducted an Anambra victim on June 26, 2026 at Devine Heritage Lodge, Ukwulu in Dunukofia Local Government Area of the State. The Jihadist Kidnappers also named other members identified as “Usman and Gongola”.
Eha-Amufu And Ezeagu In Enugu State As A Case-Study:
Such false denials, protection of the criminal parties (Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen) and cover-ups have continued to deepen and escalate in Enugu State where the Government of Enugu State and stationed military and police establishments and their authorities especially the Enugu State Police Command and 82 Division of the Nigerian Army are grossly involved by using government-owned and muzzled independent media organizations to suppress facts, cover up and deny Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen terror across the State particularly in Eha-Amufu part of Isi-Uzo Local Government Area. Our Report of Nov 10, 2025 statistically and graphically found that devastations caused by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen attacks from neighbouring Benue State have turned some villages into ghost towns, uprooted and displaced thousands, killed more than 117 local Christian worshippers including more than eight buried in one church compound alone; and sacked sacred places of worship numbering at least 14 including twelve Anglican church and two Catholic church parishes since March 2021. Link:https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/news/359300/the-untold-story-of-shocking-
discoveries-in-enugu.html.
According to eyewitnesses and survivors interviewed by Intersociety, the Government of Enugu State Government rather than coming to their rescue, brutally responded to the attacks by violently cracking down on the youths of the area including youth leaders of the affected churches for voicing out-resulting in mass arrests and weeks of unlawful detention using police crack squads and military personnel drafted from 82 Division of Nigerian Army, Enugu and Enugu State Police Command; during which several pictorial and video evidence linking Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen attackers and their attacks were destroyed, so as to cover-up the jihadist attacks and erase traces. The matter was also twisted and the arrested victims accused of “kidnapping, arson, armed robbery, vandalism and terrorism”.
Report also filtered in from Inoyi-Affa in Udi Local Government Area of Enugu State that masked gunmen armed with AK-47s and machetes stormed the St Joseph Catholic Church on Sunday, August 2, 2026 and abducted the officiating Seminarian, the Catechist and another worshipper and disappeared with them into the nearby bush and trekked a long distance before releasing the Catechist and disappeared with the Seminarian and the other worshipper (Emmanuel). Eyewitnesses including the freed Catechist said they are suspected Fulani Jihadists who have been terrorizing the area since recent times. Several communities of Nsukka, Uzo Uwani and Nkanu East have also been affected and devastated by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen terror activities in recent years and rarely reported in the media-owing to Government and security forces’ censorship and highhandedness.
In Ezeagu Local Government Area, similar state actor cover-ups, suppression of facts, transfer or shifting of criminal responsibility (blaming it on “IPOB/ESN” or “unknown gunmen/hoodlums”), protection of the criminal parties (Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen), harassment and intimidation of the attacked communities; and false labelling and ethno-religious profiling of their indigenes-have enveloped various communities in the area particularly Communities of Umuaji Imezi-Owa, Imezi-Owa, Umuagba-Owa, Ezema-Owa, Ogwumike-Owa, Aguobu-Owa, Oha Ndiagu, among others. Our Researchers and Investigators have since 2024 gathered that various communities in Ezeagu have been laid under siege by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and their patrons since 2010.
The Ezeagu Fulani Jihadists also recruited some local “retreatists” as their informants and agents or partners in the orgy of jihadist kidnappings-for-ransom, among other heinous crimes ravaging the area. Sadly, despite several outcries by leaders and stakeholders of the affected communities for Government of Enugu State and stationed security forces to intervene and frontally address the jihadist Fulani Herdsmen terror, the siege has not only continued but worsened and escalated since then. The partisanship and discriminatory approaches to the jihadist terror by Government of Enugu State and stationed security forces further deteriorated on July 16, 2026 when the State Government announced suspension of three Traditional Rulers and four Community Presidents- General in the area for “security breaches”.
The affected Traditional Rulers included:
lgwe C. Ozoigbokwe of Umuaji-Imezi Owa Autonomous Community, Igwe Leo Nechi of Imezi Owa Autonomous Community and lgwe Benedict Adinde of Umuagba Autonomous Community; while the four Presidents-General included: Samson Ike of Umuagba Owa Town Union, Remigus Ozoanya of Ezema Owa Town Union, Peter Igwebuike of Imezi Owa Town Union and Chief Lazarus Ejim of Ogwumike Owa Town Union. Though the Government of Enugu State was silent on claims of “security breaches” but findings from our Researchers and Investigators showed that the affected traditional community leaders were likely to have been suspended for voicing out on severally against Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen terror in their communities, dating back to 2010. Evidently, according to Intersociety’s collected data, Ezeagu Local Government Area has been under siege by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and their terror attacks since 2010-resulting in the loss of hundreds of lives and properties and abduction and ransom or disappearance of hundreds of others including clergies of Catholic, Anglican and Pentecostal churches. Displacement of many villagers and destruction of their ancestral farmlands including the popular ‘Eke Abonuzu Cassava Market’ and occupation of the area’s ancient Ajali Spring Water River also occurred.
The situation got compounded and deteriorated following brazen complicity and partisanship of the Enugu State Police Command and Enugu 82 Division of the Nigerian Army and Government of the State, to the extent the named political state actors and stationed armed state actors have gone ahead to twist the jihadist terror attacks by blaming them on leaders and indigenes of the affected communities leading to recent war-grade military attacks on civilian homes and abduction of dozens of their defenseless indigenes as well as recent crackdown on key leaders of the affected communities. It is recalled that the Intersociety field researchers and investigators twice went to the area in November 2025 and May 2026, producing detailed investigative Reports on May 19, 2026 (https://intersociety-ng.org/report-ezeagu-enugu-army-invasion- civilian-house-burnings-and-allied-atrocities/) and December 16, 2025 (https://intersociety-ng.org/over-20-dens-of-jihadist-fulani-terror-discovered-in-communities-of-ezeagu-in-enugu-state/).
Over 25 Igbo Communities Under Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen Siege Since January 2026: By our recently collected statistics, more than twenty-five Igbo Land Judeo-Christian Communities have been under Jihadist Fulani Herdsman siege and attacks since January 2026, partly or substantially. These are rarely reported by mainstream media except some social media and eyewitnesses accounts. As part of their broad policy of cover-ups, false denials, transfer of criminal responsibility, ethno-religious profiling and false labeling, the Governors of respective South-East States and stationed security establishments and their authorities as well as government-owned and muzzled or censored independent media are found to have rarely reported such jihadist attacks. The political state actors and armed state actors are also found to have engaged in sponsoring counter social media outfits to deny such reports or blame such attacks on wrong or uninvolved parties (especially “IPOB/ESN” or “unknown gunmen/hoodlums”).
The armed state actors in Igbo Land South-East have also collapsed processes of credible intelligence gathering and detailed and conclusive criminal investigations by recklessly and dangerously relying on “hasty and hearsay conclusions”, false labeling, ethno-religious profiling, mass and class criminalization and distorted, concocted and doctored intelligence or criminal investigation outcomes. Among the partly or substantially affected twenty-five Igbo South-East communities found to have been experiencing Jihadist Fulani attacks such as abductions, disappearances, secret killings, armed robberies, sexual violence, among others are several communities of Ezeagu in Enugu; some parts of Ukwulu, Ogidi, Agulu and Ogbaru communities in Anambra; some communities of Umuahia North and Umuahia South including Ubakala and Ohuhu in Abia; some parts of communities of Iheagwa, Eziobodo, Obinze, Naze, Nekede, Obibiezena and Irete in Owerri and its environs in Imo where abduction of no fewer than a dozen students, travelers and indigenous farmers and killing of scores recently occurred. Others are some communities of Awgu and Isi-Uzo in Enugu State including Eha-Amufu and Mgbuji; some communities of Uzo- Uwani including Ogurugu, Igga, Nimbo and Adani; some communities of Nkanu East and West including Akpawfu and Mburubu; some communities of Oguta including Agwa and Izombe; and some communities of Ohafia including Isiugwu, Amangwu and Akanu; some communities of Ohaji-Egbema; and some communities of Udi including Affa, among others. In neighboring Igbo-Delta State, Ellah and Umuagwu communities are also affected.
Enugu State Govt., Police, Army Watched Idly As Fulani Jihadists Sacked 16 Villages In Isi-Uzo:
Not less than sixteen Trado-Judo-Christian villages in Isi-Uzo Local Government Area of Enugu State have been sacked by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen in the past four years or since 2022. This is to the extent that Government of Enugu State and stationed military and police establishments and their authorities have turned blind eyes, looking for ways to blame such jihadist terror on “IPOB/ESN”. This was exclusively disclosed by a popular social media and religious activist, Evangelist Ebube Joseph who recently visited one of the Internally Displaced Persons’ camps in the area-where he raised serious concerns over the humanitarian crisis facing the internally displaced persons in the area, numbering hundreds. According to him, “attacks by Fulani Herdsmen have forced residents of 16 communities or villages to flee their homes and displaced in the past four years (since 2022) without homes, businesses and other means of livelihood, all destroyed by Fulani Herdsmen in four years”.
Evangelist Ebube Joseph also conducted live interviews with some of the displaced persons, disclosing that only about 5% of the displaced persons were in the IDP camp while most of others scattered in different parts of Enugu and beyond. He accused the Government of Enugu State of doing little or nothing to ensure their security, safety and welfare, and freedom of religion or beliefs, contrary to Sections 14 (2b) and 38 of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution. He also shared verified pictures and video clips from the camp. His encounter was published in a number of online media platforms including Akelicious Online Report of July 31, 2026 (https://www.akelicious.net/16-villages-sacked-by-fulani-herdsmen-in-enugu-state/). Here is also the Facebook link to the video, exclusively shared by Evangelist Ebube: https://www.facebook.com/100085347687482/posts/1003021292552784/?rdid=LFWFtF3FGTdPpWSN#
No Traces Of State Records Of Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen Terror In South-East In Past 10 Years:
Despite several independent reports or findings regarding the terror activities of Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen across the Igbo Land South-East since 2016 or in past ten years, including mass killings and abductions resulting in no fewer than 7000 Igbo Judeo-Christian deaths and thousands of abducted and possibly disappeared others; there have been no traces of State actor records documenting or evidencing such attacks including number of those attacked, where, when, why and how they were attacked and identities of those that attacked them and how many of the attackers (if any) have been tracked, arrested, tried and convicted and compensation and rehabilitation measures taken to restore the victims back to their former normal ethno-religious lifestyles.
Instead, such grisly and egregious attacks have officially been debunked when rarely published in the mainstream media. In most cases, mainstream media reporters are censored from reporting them. The political and armed state actors are also found to have resorted to use of propaganda, harassment and intimidation to scare independent media reporters away and intimidate them and researchers into not reporting them.
Where they are rarely reported in social media and blogs, they are instantly tagged “fake news” or falsely labeled as “the handiwork of IPOB/ESN or unknown gunmen or hoodlums or Christian kidnappers”. Local and international research and investigative bodies are found to have often been labeled “sympathizers or affiliates of IPOB/ESN”. There is also reckless use of transfer of criminal responsibility or apportionment of blames on wrong parties, in addition to false labeling, hasty and hearsay conclusions, class or mass criminalization and ethno-religious profiling-all done without credible intelligence and detailed and conclusive criminal investigations.
Reckless Resort By State Actors To Structural Violence, Physical Violence And Cultural Violence: Part of the murderous armed state actor operational policy fueling mass killings, abductions and disappearances of thousands of Igbo Land South-East Judeo-Christian civilians especially their productive male population-is reckless and indiscriminate resort to structural, physical and cultural violence; a deliberate policy of depopulation. Structural Violence is sustained through gross lopsidedness and discrimination in the ethnic and religious composition of top military, police and intelligence establishment officers posted to the South-East to man such formations and their field combatants; found to have been steadily dominated since 2015 by Northern Muslim officers and their combatants. Armed state actor Cultural Violence in the East is sustained through reckless use of false labeling, ethno-religious profiling and mass or class criminalization; resulting in mass killings, abductions and disappearances (Physical Violence)
In Service to Humanity,
For: International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law-Intersociety, Nigeria
Emeka Umeagbalasi, Criminologist and Graduate of Security Studies
Lead Researcher and Head of Intersociety Nigeria
Chidinma Evangeline Udegbunam, Barrister-at-Law
Head, Department of Campaign and Publicity, Intersociety Nigeria
Obianuju Joy Igboeli, Barrister-at-Law
Head, Department of Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, Intersociety Nigeria
Digital Contacts:
Mobile/WhatsApp Lines: +2349043234178, +2349130156872
Email: info@intersociety-ng.org: Website: https://intersociety-ng.org
For: Ekwenche Research Institute & Organization, Chicago, Illinois, United States
Prof Justin Akujieze
President and Chairman of the Board
Ekwenche Research Institute, USA
Contact: +1 (773) 206-9401
Mazi Luke Nwannunu
Secretary and Chair, Finance Committee
Ekwenche Research Institute, USA
Contact: +1 (773) 294-1997
Rev. Father Emeka Nwachukwu
Chair, Education and Spirituality Committee
Ekwenche Research Institute, USA
Contact: +1(630) 835-4918
Digital Contacts:
Website: www.ekwenche .org
Email: ekwenche@gmail.com
Phone Line: +1 (773) 206-9401
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