Setting The Record Straight
Our attention has been brought to an erroneous and misleading press release on published on Guardian Newspaper, December 31, 2022 and on other
media platforms by the Nigerian Army spokesman, Brigadier General Onyema Nwachukwu
claiming inter-alia, that ‘’Lieutenant PP Johnson, a female army officer, was
abducted on Monday, December 26, 2022, while visiting her grandmother in
Aku-Okigwe in Imo State, shortly after completion of her Cadet training and
subsequent commissioning as a Lieutenant into the Nigerian Army’’.
Apparently, it was on the strength of this false notion that a horde of military personnel and other security agents invaded Aku community in Okigwe LGA on Friday, December 30, 2022, tenably in search of the abducted officer. Reports indicate that rampaging security agents not only shot indiscriminately but plundered, burnt several houses in the hitherto serene Aku community, located in Okigwe LGA of Imo state.
We clarify and explicitly state inter-alia that:
1. For the avoidance of doubt, we DO NOT condone nor hold a brief for non-state actors in whatever guise. We wholeheartedly condemn the pervasive, sporadic criminality within Okigwe environ, including the intermittent kidnappings attributed to so-called ‘herdsmen’, and more specifically the abduction and dehumanizing treatment meted out to Lieutenant PP Johnson.
2. 2. Army officer, Lieutenant PP Johnson is NOT from Aku community neither is her mother, father, grandmother from Aku-Okigwe as incorrectly claimed in aforesaid press release. It follows that the claim of her purportedly visiting her grandmother at Aku-Okigwe is blatant FALSEHOOD as she has no paternal or maternal affiliation to Aku community.
3. 3. Lieutenant PP
Johnson was not abducted in Aku community. Without pointing fingers, the video
of her abduction and dastardly treatment which was widely circulated online
suggests she was abducted along the Ihube-Enugu expressway. According to
Vanguard Newspaper report, January 1, 2023, Lt. Johnson was abducted at ‘’Mbaraukwa’’,
her maternal home. There is no village, kindred or place known as Mbaraukwa in
Aku-Okigwe. It therefore beggars belief why Brigadier General Onyema Nwachukwu
tagged in his press release that she was kidnapped while visiting her
grandmother at Aku-Okigwe?
4. 4. Aku people are
generally agrarian, peaceful, and law-abiding. Aku people are cognizant of
their rich tradition and cultural heritage which amongst other things, forbids
the mere thought of hurting a 'nwa nwa' (grandchild) let alone dehumanizing or
killing a grandchild. It is a distasteful, an abomination. Children born and
bred in Aku community are aware that hurting/killing a nwa nwa (grandchild) is
an abomination in our clime.
5. 5. The dust is yet
to settle, and people are yet to return home, but we understand that a few
people may have been killed during the latest military bombardment of Aku
community. One of them is a young man named ‘’Sunday Ejishim’’ who was
gruesomely shot dead by the rampaging government security forces (GSF). This is
the umpteenth time that Government Security Forces (GSF) will be launching
unrestrained, indiscriminate attack, and burning of houses on Aku community. Recall
that a secondary school student, Miss Favour Okoronkwo was gunned down in her
family house on November 13, 2022 while Mr. Ifeanyichukwu Orji, a father of
seven children whose wife gave birth to twins not long ago, was shot dead on
November 20, 2022, also in front of his house.
Figure 2:
Ifeanyichukwu Orji shot dead in Aku community, Okigwe LGA, by government
security forces_20th November 2022
Our prayers:
1.
We call upon the
military hierarchy to cease further indiscriminate rampage, killing of innocent
people in Aku-Okigwe community. We call upon the governor of Imo state to rein
in the Imo state-backed security militia from sweeping attacks on innocent
people and burning of houses.
2.
We call for an independent
judicial inquiry and investigation into the vicious attack on Aku community. The
brutal action by security forces on Aku Community in Okigwe LGA must not be
swept under the carpet. This must not be like the case of ‘’unknown soldier’’. It
must be investigated, and action taken against the masterminds.
3.
We ask for compensation
as a result of the loss of lives and unimaginable financial losses incurred as
a result of the military action on Aku-Okigwe community.
E-signed:
Deacon Mahakwe Ukaegbu
President General, Aku Community Development
Union (ACDU)
January 02, 2023
Hon. Obinna Okoye
Secretary General, Aku Community Development
Union (ACDU)
January 02, 2022
Don Ifeanyichukwu Okereke
Administrator, Umu Aku Forum
January 02, 2023
CC:
President Muhammadu Buhari
Governor Imo State, Senator Hope Uzodinma
Senator representing Okigwe North, Senator Frank
Ibezim
Member Representing Okigwe North, Hon. Princess
Miriam Onuoha
Member Representing Okigwe, Imo House of
Assembly, Hon. Chidi Ogbunikpa
Chief of Army Staff
Chief of Civil Military Affairs
Nigerian Army Human Rights Desk. Email:
na.hrd@army.mil.ng.
Access to justice
Advocates San Frontiers
African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights
Amnesty International
Brekete Family
CLEEN Foundation
Federation of International Female Lawyers
Femi Falana Chambers
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria
(HURIWA)
Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law
International Federation for Human Rights
National Human Rights Commission (NHRC)
Nigerian Bar Association (NBA)
NOPRIN Foundation
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner
for Human Rights
Socio Economic Rights Accountability Project
(SERAP)
Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
United Nations Human Rights Council
West African Bar Association (WABA)
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