Dec. 1, 2021
FCC Jones Onwuasoanya
“I have passed through Awo-Omamma many times since the incident and everytime I do, my heart breaks and I weep. The carnage is beyond what is being reported on social media” A friend lamented. He talks about that incident all the time, but because I know his political background, something kept telling me that he could be exaggerating things because of his disposition towards the governing Party and his palpable disenchantment with “the mindless extortion by the Northern dominated police and Army checkpoints across the Southeast”.
I had watched heart wrenching videos and pictures and read stories of the incident in Awo-Omamma. I was so enraged on the day of the incident that I spilled so much spleen on my screen against the Army before having to take it down, on a second thought. By late evening of that day, the Army in Imo State came up with a statement exonerating its officers of culpability in what happened. Their narrative wasn’t completely convincing, but a dispassionate read of the Army Press Statement would leave you in the middle of the matter, especially, when the so-called Unknown gunmen do not have any known line of communication. The IPOB which the Army would want us to believe control and command the unknown gunmen, expectedly, have disowned anyone enforcing a sit-at-home order in Igbo land. This leaves us with the Army’s narrative as the only official report on the incident. The only other way to find out the real truth is through some kind of independent inquiry or journalistic investigation.
Knowing how risky it could be relying on the narrative of a politically interested person in arriving at a conclusion on any matter, especially, in my dear Imo State, I consciously cut off some of my partisan friends from Awo-Omamma and rather looked around for those who are not interested or involved in the toxic politics of calumny that Imo is gripped with at the moment.
My efforts at getting the truth was almost futile, as people were either afraid to share their eye witness stories about the incident or are still gripped with the horror of that incident. For instance, a woman whom I was told sales fruits around the place, hissed in apparent anger, immediately I introduced myself as a writer trying to find out the truth about what happened. Another young man just told me; “Oga obodo adighi mma, amaghim nke m ga ekwu kwute nsogbu.” He was polite enough to tell me that he was afraid to talk. From what I was able to gather however, majority of the people believe that the Army set that place ablaze in retaliation for the killing of one of their colleagues. But the Army insists that IPOB members or the Unknown gunmen enforcing a purported sit-at-home order were directly behind that irresponsible attack on hapless civilians.
The people’s reluctance to volunteer information on this incident and on the activities of criminal elements, generally could be for the fear of retaliatory attacks from the unknown gunmen, as according to the Army the hoodlums had carried out these destructions on innocent citizens in retaliation for their volunteering information to the troops.
According to the Army spokesman; “While the troops engaged the hoodlums in their hideout, other members of the group who alleged that some individuals had volunteered information to the troops mustered at Ishieke junction and set ablaze houses and businesses of law abiding citizens.”
The Army described those who accuse its officers of being behind this destruction as “collaborators” with the “IPOB/ESN and other criminal elements” with an intent to mislead and misinform Nigerians.
My friend whom I quoted his lamentation in the opening paragraph says that the loss in properties could be quantified in hundreds of million Naira, or even more than one billion Naira. More than hundred houses were razed down, shops and the wares in them, home furnitures, cars and motorcycles weren’t spared.
According to him; “There is a mechanic workshop that was completely brought down by the fire. I counted up to fifteen car carcasses. What is the son of these people?”
While I cannot confidently conclude on who was actually behind this apparent act of terrorism against the people of Awo-Omamma and those doing businesses within the area, two things are certain about the incident;
- There was a confrontation between the Army and some criminal elements enforcing a purported sit-at-home order. Obviously, these hoodlums couldn’t have mustered more fire power than the Army and were certainly outgunned. The Army succeeded in dispersing them.
- There was a retaliatory attack which claimed the life of at least, one personnel of the Army.
Now, two things are possible;
- If the arson actually started after the killing of the Army personnel, then, there are chances that the troop went berserk after losing one of their men and pursued the hoodlums, who naturally might want to take cover or they suspected that they took cover in nearby houses or shops, and given that the people wouldn’t want to give out the person who ran into their houses, the Army might have concluded that these civilians were providing cover for criminals and decided to teach them a bitter lesson.
- If the hoodlums were actually outgunned in their first encounter with the Army, and they decided to visit their anger on innocent citizens, and if the Army actually came on a rescue mission to those doing business and residing around the area, like they would want us to believe, then, it should be that the fire actually started before the arrival of the troops.
Whatever be the case, the sad reality is that people have been rendered homeless, lives have been lost and businesses have been destroyed. We might be able to assist those who lost their houses and businesses to cushion the effect of these losses, through donations from government and public spirited individuals, but we won’t ever be able to bring back those who died in these unnecessary crises back to life.
Everyone should get involved in efforts at restoring peace to Igbo land, we should avoid actions and utterances that might invite more violent reactions from our less restrained brothers. The only guarantee against a repetition of this kind of unfortunate incident or even a more tragic one is when we achieve a peaceful State and Ala Igbo in general. The Nigerian Army is not the most disciplined Army in the world, and we must work assiduously in discouraging situations that would give them excused to visit their rascality on our people, especially our able-bodied youths.
Communities should resuscitate their local vigilante and everyone should get involved in the business of securing Igbo land. Fortunately, the IPOB has severally distanced itself from and even encouraged its members to look out for those enforcing Monday sit-at-home and deal with them. The people should report suspicious activities of groups and individuals to security agents. This is the only way we can ensure that some external terrorists do not cash in on our agitation to destroy Ala Igbo.
Security agents on their own should also maintain highest professional standards in their operations. They shouldn’t allow themselves to be provoked into terrorizing the same people they are paid to protect. They should be deploy good intelligence to ensure that they fish out and bring to justice the perpetrators of any form of criminal acts in Igbo land and they should also invest in civil military relations to boost the confidence of law abiding citizens in sharing vital information with relevant law enforcement agents and according them useful cooperation when necessary.
