Human Rights Activists Challenge UN to Investigate Jihadist Killings in Nigerian Region

The team of criminologists, security experts, governance professionals, and lawyers criticize Governors of the Southeastern Nigerian States for employing “primitive” tactics to fight insecurity in the region, noting that their fear to call out Jihadist Fulani herdsmen behind killings in the region is leading to the escalation of the crisis.

“The old order and primitive approaches by Southeast Governors to insecurity and other unsafe conditions have been responsible for escalation and worsening of security situations in the region,” they say.

The Intersociety officials further decry the lack of courage on the part of those at the helm of a section of Nigerian States, saying, “The present Southeast Governors have also been found to be so fearful that it looks as if they collectively or individually have skeletons in their cupboards or collective hidden agenda against their people. They are so afraid to publicly condemn the jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and their atrocities in the region.”

They say that the Governors are also “vicariously responsible for grisly rights abuses and violations by the drafted security agents and their chiefs in the Southeastern region. These, they have been doing by refusing to openly condemn the killings and burnings outside the law and by allocating public funds to security chiefs in aid of such atrocious acts.”

Meanwhile, Intersociety is less optimistic that the 2023 South-East Governors’ Security and Economic Summit scheduled to be held in Imo State from September 28-29 will yield any results.

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“Several research and investigative reports by Intersociety on insecurity and other unsafe conditions and those fanning them in the Southeast have clearly indicated that nothing meaningful is most likely to come out of the planned summit,” the human rights activists say.

They add that the outcome of the Governors’ summit will most likely end up being “a mere talk-show” and a wastage of public funds.

Agnes Aineah is a Kenyan journalist with a background in digital and newspaper reporting. She holds a Master of Arts in Digital Journalism from the Aga Khan University, Graduate School of Media and Communications and a Bachelor's Degree in Linguistics, Media and Communications from Kenya's Moi University. Agnes currently serves as a journalist for ACI Africa.