By Emeka Omeihe
What could account for the rising attacks and abduction of traditional rulers in Imo state? Why Imo? These are the questions on the lips of the people following the spate of violent attacks on traditional rulers in Imo state in the last one month or so.
The sad episode crept in with the gruesome attack on traditional rulers who had gone to the Njaba local government headquarters to honor a meeting summoned by the local government caretaker committee chairman. While in the meeting, the traditional rulers were attacked by armed men who succeeded in snuffing life out of two of them. Many others sustained varying degrees of injury while scampering to safety.
As I write, not much has been heard of the outcome of that attack except blame trading between the police and the caretaker committee chairman on why security was not provided for that meeting given the volatility of the area in the state’s insecurity matrix. It is not on record that arrests have been made. Neither is there any evidence before the public that our security agencies have been able to unravel the masterminds of that dastardly attack and desecration of the traditional institution.
Since after that attack, the state appears to have carved out an unenviable record in violent attacks and kidnapping of traditional rulers. About the 9th of this month, the traditional ruler of Mbutu ancient kingdom in the Aboh Mbaise LGA, Eze Damian Nwigwe and his counterpart from Attah in the Njaba LGA, Eze Edwin Azike were separately kidnapped from their palaces. But while Nwigwe was freed two days later, Azike was not that lucky. His dead body was dumped in his car and parked at the community’s market square.
Before then, the traditional ruler of Achi Mbieri in the Mbaitoli LGA, Henry Madumere was abducted on his way to a public function. He regained freedom after many days in the hands of his captors. The list is endless.
What upped the ante in the violent and gruesome assault on the Imo traditional institution was the abduction and subsequent burning down of the palaces of two traditional rulers in the Okigwe LGA two Sunday’s ago. The affected royal fathers are Acho Ndukwe of Amagu Ihube and Pul Ogbu of Ihitte Ihube. Eze Ndukwe was lucky to be rescued by a special team of security operatives but Ogbu’s fate has remains largely unknown. There are peculations that the worst may have happened.
Unlike most of these kidnappings and killing of royal fathers that had remained largely unresolved, that of the two Ihube traditional rulers took a different but seemingly revealing dimension. State security agencies said they discovered dead bodies, decapitated human heads and roasted bodies at ESN and kidnappers’ camps when they raided two communities in Imo and Anambra states.
Imo state Director of State Services DSS, Wilcox Idaminabo said the combined team of security operatives rescued Eze Ndukwe, arrested 30 IPOB/ESN and kidnap suspects during the operation. Hear him: “In the course of the operation, the security forces were able to rescue Eze Acho and we discovered a lot of decapitated bodies. I wonder, in the 21st century, we noticed that people still practice cannibalism here. We saw human flesh being roasted. It was an eyesore”
Since after that media briefing, the video of the cannibalism Idaminabo spoke of has been trending in the social media apparently to give credence to the claims by security agencies. Two weeks earlier, the minister of Information Lai Mohammed had in a statement while deprecating the alleged decapitation in the most gruesome manner of two police officers by the IPOB/ESN made claims to the same cannibalism theory.
He had assured that those who killed the officers “in a cannibalistic manner” videotaped and circulated the atrocious act would be brought to book. Soon after, here we are with a seeming evidence of the alleged cannibalism. The coincidence appears curious. Does that say something?
It is good security agencies are getting a clue to the rampant killings and kidnapping of traditional rulers in Imo state especially with the arrest of those who kidnapped the traditional rulers of Ihube. The 30 suspects are made up of alleged IPOB/ESN members and kidnappers said to be taken from their camps in Imo and Anambra states. It is not clear whether the alleged IPOB/ESN members shared the same camps with the kidnap suspects.
Whatever the case, it does appear the security agencies have made a major breakthrough in unraveling the purveyors of the heightened insecurity that has rendered life a miserable lot in the state for quite some time now. Before now, they have been quick in attributing any and every security infraction to the IPOB/ESN even when no arrests were made.
One directional approach or reductionism tends to foreclose other leads to the mounting insecurity in the state. Yet, that approach had proved ineffective in taming the tide of violent crimes in the state. What appears evident from the arrest of the 30 suspects is that criminals such as kidnappers, armed robbers, ritual killers and other dangerous men of the underworld are also in the devious game for sundry motivations.
This dimension is very vital in getting a handle to the festering insecurity not only in Imo state but other parts of the country. Mono causal explanations are of limited value in accounting for burning social phenomena. Now we know there are other undesirable elements at the center of the insecurity in Imo state, the security agencies are in a better stead to design effective strategies to smoke them out from their hideouts.
The freeing of Eze Ndukwe at the camp of the criminals suspects and arrest of the masterminds are symbolic in more ways than one. For one, it affords the security agencies the opportunity to exhaustively interrogate the traditional on what transpired between the time he was kidnapped and his palace set ablaze by his captors and when he was released. Such inquisition should reveal the motives of his captors, the discussions they had with him, why he was targeted and what they stood to gain. He should have serious information to aid the security agencies.
For another, those arrested at the scene where the traditional ruler was freed will be of immense value in unraveling the motive behind the mounting attacks and kidnapping of traditional rulers. Security agencies should interrogate them thoroughly on what issues they have with traditional rules that they have become an endangered lot in the state. Why have they become targets of selective kidnapping and elimination in the most bizarre manner?
These are some of the puzzles security agencies have to unravel since the suspects were arrested right inside their camps. But the public deserves to know the outcome of this investigation given the high interest the matter has generated and other issues to it. The 30 suspects paraded by the security agencies were said to be composed of IPOB/ESN members and kidnappers arrested in two camps in the Ihiala area of Anambra state and Orsu in Imo state.
But in a trending interview, a former member of the House of Representatives from Orsu, Dr Jeff Ojinika queried some of the claims by security agencies in respect of the people arrested in the Orsu area. He said contrary to the claims by security agencies, some of the people arrested in Orsu were picked up in their homes and while carrying out their legitimate duties and not in any camp.
He reeled out their names which he said were compiled and given to him by his traditional ruler and the president of the LGA progressive union. He called for an independent investigation to ensure that innocent people are not made to suffer unjustly. The issues raises by Ojinika are weighty and very serious and the security agencies must respond to them.
Extreme care must be exercised in ensuring that innocent people are not randomly arrested just to prove that the security agencies are working. Before now, allegations have been rife on the indiscriminate arrest and incarceration of innocent youths on the guise that they are IPOB members. Security agencies must show utmost transparency in handling the 30 suspects in order not to encumber the integrity of their joint outing penultimate Monday.

Omeihe is a veteran journalist.