Nigeria: Investigative Report
Intersociety: Monday, June 2, 2025
Title: Research And Investigative Discovery Of 950 Locations In 770-800 (40%) Of 1,940 Igbo Communities Across South-East Presently Under Occupation Or Threats Of Attack By Armed Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen And Allied Others And Conspiratorial Role Of Five South-East Christian Govs Through Religiously Radicalized Land Procurement, Communal Land Ceding And Secretive Issuance Of Certificates-Of-Occupancy To Jihadists’ Patrons In An Alleged Or Strongly Suspected “Electoral Victory And Post Election Court Win For Jihadist Fulani Settlements In Igbo Land Swap Deal”-Overlooking Present And Future Faith And Ethnic Identity Safety And Security Grave Dangers
…courage and outspokenness of community leaders and people of Okahia in Obingwa, Abia State and Umuapu-Ohaji and Obitti-Ohaji in Ohaji/Egbema, Imo State commendable
Executive Summary:
950 Locations In 770-800 Igbo Communities Under Jihadist Occupation Or Threat:
A recent detailed research and investigation by the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety); Nigeria’s leading research and investigative advocacy group with a track record of credibility and respectability in the promotion of freedom of religion or worship and respect and preservation of ethnic identity, among other civil liberties in Nigeria or any part thereof, or beyond the shores of Nigeria since 2008; has shown that there are likely to be not less than 950 locations in 770-800 of the existing 1,940 Igbo Trado-Judeo-Christian Communities across South-East of Nigeria that are presently under occupation or threats of attack by armed Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and allied others. The 950 locations in 770-800 South-East Communities also indicates that approximately 40% of the entire 1,940 Communities in the South-East are gravely facing dangers of jihadist occupation or under threats of the same.
These research and investigative discoveries of ours also exposed “three-way direct or vicarious involvement” of the Five South-East Christian Governors including four Catholic-Governors of Enugu, Anambra, Ebonyi and Imo (potential recipients of Papal Knighthood) and a Seventh Day Adventist-Governor of Abia State. Their “three-way” involvement was found by our investigative findings to have arisen from conspiratorial communal land procurement or seizing/ceding and secretive issuance of Certificates-Of-Occupancy to the Jihadists’ Patrons in an alleged “electoral victory and post-election court win for Jihadist Fulani settlements in Igbo Land swap deal”. It is also our investigative finding and information that the Abia Governor, previously removed from our list of South-East Govs promoting religious violence and attacks on Christians and Traditional Religionists in our 35-Page Report of April 3, 2025, has been restored to the list following fresh discoveries that detected direct or vicarious involvement of his Government in facilitation of Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and allied others jihadist settlements in the South-East or any part thereof including Abia State; particularly by way of bureaucratic and policy legitimization of such jihadist settlements despite inherent security and safety dangers involved.
Totality of the above is widely believed to have explained why the Five South-East Christian Govs have not only refused to speak out or rise in strong condemnation of the genocidal jihadist activities of the Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and allied others in Igbo Land-Southeast, but have also bluntly refused and failed to act or take action as Chief Security Officers of their respective States. The Five South-East Christian Governors are also found not to be alone in such conspiracy of silence, complicity and inaction as top leaders of Christian Faith especially Episcopal and Pastoral heads of the Catholic, the Anglican and the Pentecostal churches have joined them by being too attached to the Govs; forcing them to lose their assertiveness, independent voicing and Episcopal neutrality; to the extent that some of them are facilitated by gubernatorial or political establishments to publicly speak or engage in false denials, misinformation or misrepresentation of facts whenever such jihadist herders attacks erupt in communities or dioceses where they are episcopally in charge (.i.e. recent Herdsmen attacks in Eha-Amufu, Isi-Uzo, Enugu State). This is even when their Episcopal houses are on fire.
Inherent Grave Dangers Thereto Must Be Averted Before They Are Too Late:
It is not as if the Five South-East Christian Governors are not aware of grave dangers inherent in leasing and mortgaging the territorial, personal, collective, faith, ethnic and infrastructural security and safety of the South-East, they are fully aware and not blind to the goings-on in places like Benue, Plateau, Southern Kaduna, etc. That is to say that the Five South-East Christian Govs are most likely to be aware that the greatest threat facing provision of physical security in the South-East is the gross partisanship and discriminatory law enforcements and operations by the country’s security agencies drafted to the Region since August 2015, particularly personnel of the Armed Forces. The above is to the extent that in the South-East where they hold sway as Govs, not less than 20,500-21,000 defenseless “sedentary Southeasterners have been killed or hacked to death by combined forces of Islamic Jihadists and Jihad-enablers within the country’s security forces, covering a period of ten years or May 2015 to May 2025.
The partisanship and discriminatory law enforcements and operations of the drafted security forces are so noticeable and manifestly biased that there are little or zero operational statistics showing the number of Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and allied others gone after or apprehended and prosecuted or “neutralized” in the line of crossfire since August 2015. Roadway and captivity killings or abductions and allied ransom payments and disappearances in the South-East have been critically studied by the Intersociety and estimated 40% traced to the doorsteps of the assembled Jihadists in the Region, yet such have never been traced or located in the official operational records of the deployed personnel of the Nigerian Armed Forces and Police Crack Squads anywhere in the Region; who regularly turn around and blame them on “IPOB/ESN/UGM terrorism”. There are therefore grave dangers ahead on personal, physical, territorial, faith and ethnic identity safety and security in the South-East; bearing in mind the intractable jihadist tragedies befalling the Christian-held Northern Nigeria’s Benue, Plateau and Southern Kaduna; with a typical case in point being in Benue State (largest Christian State in Northern Nigeria) where Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen have ceaselessly continued wreaking havoc in many parts of defenseless Benue Christian communities. The most shocking of it was disclosure by the Nigerian Catholic Diocesan Priests Association in Makurdi Diocese, led by Rev. Father Joseph Beba, who in a press briefing on Sunday, June 1, 2025, disclosed that “15 Catholic Parishes under Makurdi Diocese have been closed down or sacked and over 50 Christians hacked to death by armed herders in the past two weeks (of May 2025), in addition to sacking of several communities including Tse Orbiam, Abume, Jimba, Nagi-Camp, Aondoana, Yelewata, and Abegana”. End Of Executive Summary
Electronic Link To The Full Report Is Here: https://intersociety-ng.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Investigative-Report.pdf
End.
Signed:
For: International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law
/s E. Umeagbalasi
· Emeka Umeagbalasi
Criminologist, Lead-Researcher/Head
International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law
/s. C. Umeche
· Chinwe Umeche, Esquire
Human Rights Lawyer/Head, Democracy and Good Governance
International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law
/s. O.J. Igboeli
· Obianuju Joy Igboeli, Esquire
Human Rights Lawyer/Head, Civil Liberties and Rule of Law
International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law
/s. A.L. Okoli
Chief Anayo Leonard Okoli
Distinguished Media Practitioner/Member of the Board
International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law
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