Still On Awommamma Killings – Softly, Softly Hope Uzodinmma

BY OMIFE I. OMIFE
MBUZE MBAUKWU

The recent killing of seven youths in Awommama Imo State is a mind-boggling.

The way and manner this brazen killing is being handled is equally worrisome.

All these killings in Imo State are very strange. I don’t condone any killing in Igbo land under any guise because killing is not part of Igbo norm or heritage.

Look at how these youths were wasted. Probably for nothing, going by the conflicting stories about the gruesome incident.

What we must know is that too much flow of blood in any land does not help or augur well for that land. With all the blood flowing up and down in Imo State, how do we appease the gods of Igbo land? How do we appease the God of heaven? How can He answer our prayers when our hands are smeared in blood?

I listened to the very chilling account of the incident by the groom involved in the post traditional marriage ceremony.
The most chilling part of his story was how one of the youths who was shot by DSS or Ebubeagu managed to run back to their in-law’s house and hid himself behind a water tank in the compound, half dead. Still, they trailed him through blood dripping from his bullet wound to the place he was hiding and shot him dead at close range.

Very terrible.

I have also listened to one Okwu a.k.a. Mayor of Mozambique, said to be the commander of the operation.

In my opinion, the reasons given by the authorities cannot justify the killing of these youths. The story, according to the government side, is that one ESN operative, after making a confession to the DSS or Ebubeagu team, whichever was involved, offered to lead them to the place where ESN members were meeting to plan an attack. Then the DSS or Ebubeagu went to the place to preempt whatever the ESN operatives might be planning to do.

This could have been a good security move, if they had not resorted to killing the suspects.

But the groom involved in the traditional marriage ceremony contradicted government account. According to the groom, the event was a post traditional marriage ceremony, popularly known in Igbo land as “Ogo malu uno”, i.e. visit of the bride’s parents and relations to know where their daughter is married to.

In that case, there could have been no need for many canopies as in full traditional marriage ceremony. There would also not be as many elderly men ,women and ashebis as in full traditional rites.

The only point of blame would be that both the host and his in-laws could have been conscious of the tense security situation in Awommamma and Imo State in general and avoided the event lasting into the night as much as possible.
But that is as far as blame goes on that side.

The point remains that the circumstantial evidence provides no justification for the DSS or Ebubeagu operatives to have opened fire so recklessly on the youths the way they did.
The worse case scenario was the DSS trailing the young man who managed to run back to the compound and killing him.

This paraticular action is open to the speculation or interpretation that this was an after-thought resolve by the DSS or Ebubeagu to ensure that none of the youths was left alive to tell their own side of the story.

Could it be that this lone near survivor of the DSS or Ebubeagu massacre had known, heard or seen too much of the true course of events to be left alive to tell the story, perhaps including recognizing some of the assailants, and therefore the need to silence him and close all tracks?

These never to be answered questions reinforce my deposition that it is wrong for the DSS or Ebubeagu to have out rightly killed the boys without evidence of crime or criminal complicity. Which puts the DSS or Ebubeagu on the wrong side of the law.

Besides, if all the 14 youths were criminals meeting in the night to plan an attack, is it not most likely that some, if not all of them would be armed, such that there would have been exchange of gun fire with the government forces before everyone of them was killed?

The security agents opening fire on the alleged ESN members is unprofessional and shows lack of training on basic law of engagement for security forces.

In Nigerian law, not even soldiers are allowed the power to shoot, much less kill people when they are unarmed, even if they are suspected criminals. You can’t tell me the alleged ESN members were planning to kill people, therefore they have to be killed without proof of crime. Under which law of which country in the world?

Following the information by the alleged confessed ESN member, what the DSS or Ebubeagu should have done was to set up a plan to infiltrate the alleged ESN group with the help of the informant, for the purpose of garnering vital information on their plans, modus operandi , source of funding, hide outs and so on.

After intelligence gathering, the next step is to embark on mass arrest of the members in various parts of the State and charge them to court of competent jurisdiction which has the onus of convicting or acquitting them or condemning them to death. But certainly not the DSS, Ebubeagu or even the police.

That was how “Dr.” Ishola Oyenusi , the first Nigerian notorious armed robber to face public execution was nabbed. Because of his dexterity in outmaneuvering police arrest in his criminal activities, the media gave him the title of ‘doctor’.

The police devised a plan. They arrested a group of notorious criminals said to have link with Oyenusi and locked them in police cell along with two police detectives in disguise. Two days later, the police detectives were able to get credible information about Oyenusi’s hideouts and later tracked him down.

Has the Nigerian police abandoned this professional strategy of the 70s and 80s or the use of trained police informants?

Killing a criminal suspect when you have the opportunity to arrest him is not the best for the police, more so when there is little or no proof of crime.

Most Nigerians of my age know or have heard about Lawrence Anini, the dare devil armed robbery kingpin in the then Bendel State of the eighties. He operated as a second Governor OF THE STATE and the mere mention of his name sent shock waves of fear to everybody. People even believed that anytime and anywhere you mention his name, he will appear mysteriously and kill everybody around.

The day Lawrence Anini was caught, nothing stopped the police from shooting and killing him at sight, more so when the police was Anini’s only target of killing. Instead, the police aimed to disable him by shooting him on the leg, but not to kill him. The police even sent him to the hospital for treatment, so he can survive and provide vital information to the police.

For one thing, if the police had killed him on sight, the much needed information about Anini’s gang, accomplices and source of weapons would have been lost.

It is instructive that in the course of police investigation and court trial of Anini, the police was able to extract information about his accomplices from A to Z who included a Deputy Superintendent of Police, DSP George Inyamu and other notorious gang members, including Monday Osumbor and Ofegge.

In the case of the seven slain youths, had the security agents not killed them at sight, the police would have been able to get important information from them about the dastardly activities of unknown gun men in Igbo land, presuming they were actually criminals.

Questions.

As I posed before, if all the youths ( both dead & alife) in that compound were criminals, meeting in the night to plan an attack, is it not most likely that some, if not all of them were armed, such that there would have been exchange of gun fire with the government forces before everyone of them was killed?

If actually they were criminals, is it possible for the DSS or Ebubegu people to have trailed the wounded one back to base without resistance from other criminals at the rear?

If the youths were actually bandits, could they have been that daring to hold their meeting in a household environment, instead of a forest or isolated hideout as criminals usually do?

If the DSS account is true that the criminals were nabbed in the forest, how come the wounded youth ran into the same household where traditional marriage event took place?

If the DSS account is true that the criminals opened fire on them, why did the DSS not retrieve the dead bodies of their casualties to their office to display them to the public with the weapons found on them and inform the public what their crimes are, as is the tradition of the Nigerian police in such cases?

If the DSS had done this, perhaps the outrage against the killing would have been much less or none at all.

How would one be sure that the so-called informant is not merely framing up his perceived enemies or giving false information as a ploy to save himself from arrest or from being killed?

If these youths were actually criminals or members of unknown gun men, is it possible that more than half of them will be from the same kindred in Otulu community?

Every community in Igbo land knows the criminals in their community. If the youths were criminals, how come the entire members of Otulu community trooped out en masse to mourn and protest the killing of their sons.
Another worrisome revelation by the alleged head of Ebubeagu security team is that the security outfit comprises Igbo young men as well as non-Igbos and policemen.

This is contrary to the concept of South East regional security which should be an all-South East affair in terms of personnel, just as Amotekun whose personnel are exclusively Yoruba. The same thing with Odua Peoples Congress (OPU).
Why should South East be different?

Ebubeagu as the name connotes, is an Igbo security outfit and should be managed and staffed as such, with a working relationship with the police and army, just like Amotekun.

Igbos know how best to secure their land and should be allowed to do so, just like hisbah in the north. Is there any soldier or policemen in the organization?

Finally, I expected the Imo Governor, Hope Uzodinmma to set up a special pane to confirm who actually shot and killed these seven youths and mortally injured seven others, whether it was actually the DSS as the governor claimed or members of Imo government’s Ebubeagu security outfit.

This is more so since the governor was said to be unavailable at the time the killing took place. And more so too because the people killed in cold blood are human beings, not cows.

Even if they were cows, these days, kill one single Fulani cow in Igbo land and you will pay through your nose. How much more seven young blooded youths in their prime. And people are telling one story or the other.

This is why Ohaneze Ndigbo should equally do its job as the umbrella organization that holds all Igbos together.

What he should do is to set up a judicial panel of inquiry which will unearth the real truth about the latest massacre. The panel’s findings will go a long way to prevent a repeat of such festival of youth blood which has become one too many in Imo State.

Meanwhile, softly, softly, Hope Uzodinmma my brother.

BY OMIFE I. OMIFE
MBUZE MBAUKWU