Following reports of the Ebubeagu security outfit’s operations in various Imo State communities, youths under the auspices of the Coalition of South East Youth Leaders have urged for their arrest, characterizing their conduct as evil and barbaric.
While criticising the security apparatus’s overzealousness, the youth group expressed unhappiness with the use of jungle justice on suspects.
A statement by the President General of COSEYL, Goodluck Ibem, made available to newsmen in Owerri on Tuesday said, “We are not in the stone age where anyone or persons will wake up one morning, accuse someone of being a criminal and kill the said person.
“We are in the 21st century where we have the rule of law and the constitution guarding the people and government activities as regards governance. For Ebubeagu security operatives to wake up and start killing Igbo youths in whatever guise is totally unacceptable.
“Most of the houses in the affected communities have been burnt down and destroyed while the little few persons who escaped being killed have run away leaving those communities empty without anyone or animal sited anywhere. Those towns are now ghost communities, without any living thing.
“One of the disturbing incidences in the community was a situation where a woman received matchets cuts in her head, hand and other parts of her body because of her inability to provide her husband or tell the Ebubeagu operatives where her husband went to.
“This is unbecoming of a sane society. Ndi-Imo and Ndi-Igbo must rise and condemn in its entirety this despicable act by these so-called Ebubeagu security operatives.
“The courts remain the last arbiter and no one has the constitutional right or powers to take the life of another man at will. If anyone is arrested on suspicion of being a criminal, he or she should be taken to court for the court to try such persons involved. It is unlawful and a criminal act to torture, maim or kill anyone on the premise of being a criminal.
“Houses and properties that were destroyed in those Communities, which court gave such orders? These operatives just assumed the duties of the courts and went ahead to destroy peoples homes and assets without recourse to the law of the land. Too sad.”
“We warn those Ebubeagu security operatives to stop forthwith the extrajudicial killings now and we demand that those found waiting or culpable of extrajudicial killings in Imo State should be made to face the music. Enough said,” Ibem stated.