Catholic-Inspired Nigerian Researchers Reveal Chilling Massacres after EndSARS Protests

According to the team of Nigerian researchers and human rights activists, the massacres in Nigeria were “sinisterly hatched” to make the EndSARS protests look like “all Southern Christian affair with intents to force the peaceful protests to become violent.”

In Obigbo alone, 130 people as said to have been killed, 150 wounded, and over 40 sexually abused.

Additionally, 620 people were badly tortured in the ordeal that lasted 20 days, between 21 October 2020 and 10 November 2020.

And most of the 620 people who were abducted are still missing, Intersociety has said, adding that another 152 people were made to disappear without a trace.

Intersociety has blamed the then Governor Nyesom Wike of River State for the massacres that targeted the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a separatist group in Nigeria who are mainly ethnic Igbos.

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In the report, Emeka and his fellow researchers say that the former governor, who is currently serving as Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, declared, on 21 October 2020, a curfew in Obigbo, inviting the Nigerian Army to “flush out IPOB terrorists” in the area.

In response, the Northern Muslim-dominated and controlled Nigerian Army under former Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Tukur Yusuf Buratai (as he then was) is said to have gone on rampage, carrying out “unspeakable execution of ethnic and religious cleansing” in a massacre that targeted the defenceless residents of Obigbo.

According to the Intersociety report, a total of 468 of the 620 people who were abducted in Obigbo were traced to different secret Army “dungeons” that are scattered in Niger State from where they were freed through court bails. 

The human rights group finds it shocking that three years later, those behind the atrocities against Obigbo residents have not been apprehended.

Instead, the Nigerian government has gone ahead to award the masterminds of the killings with top government positions, the entity laments.

“Not even a single perpetrator or aider and abettor including former Governor Nyesom Wike and 12 other key perpetrators, all retired and serving senior Army officers, has been fished out and put on trial either locally or internationally,” the team of researchers say in their report.

The 12-page international report was produced by Intersociety’s team of investigators led by Emeka, a Graduate of Security Studies and Criminologist, in collaboration with Ekwenche Research Institute, USA.

In the report, Emeka and his team has appealed to the Nigerian government to ensure that perpetrators of the Obigbo killings and abductions are dealt with legally.

“The Obigbo Army Massacre and Abductions will indelibly remain former Gov Nyesom Wike and 12 others’ nightmare for the rest of their lives. The apostles of justice and rule of law including courageous global rights campaigners are prayerfully called upon to pricelessly work toward ensuring that the perpetrators are kept behind iron bars of the prison locally or internationally in no distant future,” the human rights activists say.

They have also called for the sacking of former Governor Nyesom Wike as Minister of Nigeria’s FCT, Abuja.

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The Governor, they say, alongside 12 other key perpetrators of the atrocities must be “declared permanently unfit to occupy any elective or appointive public office locally and internationally for the rest of their lives in connection with their ignoble roles in the Obigbo Army massacre and abductions.”

The 13 should be placed on permanent international visa bans, Intersociety has said and called on the victims’ families to file civil claimant suits against the perpetrators.

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.