By Ebere Inyama
Kidnappings and other criminal activities have continued unabated in the Southeastern states of Nigeria despite the demolition of the Lokpanta cattle market in Abia state in October 2023.
The chief perpetrators of kidnappings cropping up in Abia state are criminals who speak the language of the Fulani ethnicity, TruthNigeria has learned.
In the last two months, three persons, including two traditional rulers, and a Catholic priest have been kidnapped in the Southeastern states. The Traditional Ruler of Otulu Autonomous Community in Ezinihitte-Mbaise Local Government Area of Imo State, Eze Joe Achulor, was on November 25, 2023, kidnapped by gunmen who later killed him and dumped his body on the roadside.
The other victims, Rev Fr Kingsley Eze, and Eze Samuel Ohiri were kidnapped on 30th November, 2023 and 6th January, 2024 respectively. Fr Kingsley Eze is the Priest of St Michael’s Catholic Church Parish in Umuekebi, Osuoweerre autonomous community in Isiala Mbano Local Government Area of Imo State.
The priest and another man identified as Uchenna Newman, who drove the priest in a Volvo jeep were kidnapped at Orieama junction around 8 pm on Thursday, 30th November, 2023.
Eze Samuel Ohiri is the Traditional Ruler of Orodo Autonomous Community in Mbaitoli Local Government Area of Imo State. He was on Saturday, January 6, 2024 kidnapped by a heavily-armed gang who stormed his residence in a green-coloured Toyota Highlander and abducted him.
A security official, Sergeant Okechukwu Ugorji, who works with the Nigerian Legion,
told Truth Nigeria that “Lokpanta cattle market was a hideout for kidnappers,” adding that “the government of Abia state has demolished the market”.
According to him, “a fence is being erected around the market and people are no longer allowed to live within the market premises, as the cattle market has been turned into a daily market.”
Speaking further, Sergeant Ugorji said that “the demolition of the cattle market has not stopped the kidnappers from operating.”
“The kidnappers moved from the cattle market into the surrounding forests from where they continued with their criminal activities”, Ugorji said.
Kidnappings by armed gangs in the South-eastern part of Nigeria have ramped up in recent times.
In the pre – colonial era, kidnapping was a means of abducting people to be sold as slaves to foreigners. From the time of independence , kidnapping for ransom was relatively rare.
However, in the early 1990s, a dreaded kidnap gang called the Black Secret Cult began to terrorize the inhabitants of Southeast states by kidnapping people for ritual purposes.
The members of the Black Secret Cult and their boss,, Chief Vincent Duru, alias, Otokoto, launched sporadic robberies and abduction of children within Owerri, Imo state and continued to operate until Chief Duru was arrested in September 1996. He was arrested after a headless body of an eleven year old boy, Ikechukwu Okonkwo, was found buried in his hotel in Owerri on 19th September, 1996. The discovery of the headless body of Ikechukwu Okonkwo caused the outbreak of riots within Owerri, the Imo state capital for three days, leading to the destruction of properties worth millions of naira. Chief Duru was later executed along with seven others in 2003.
With the emergence of a feared local vigilante outfit, the Bakassi Boys, in Aba, Abia state in 1999, most crime related activities in the Southeast states, including kidnapping, came to a halt. The Bakassi Boys emerged in the later part of 1999, a period of high incidences of insecurity in the commercial cities of the Southeastern part of Nigeria, namely, Onitsha, Aba, Owerri and Enugu.
Armed with machetes, guns and an array of black magic artifacts worn around their body, the group captured and slaughtered several suspects with their machetes usually in the full glare of members of the public. Their method was so effective that most people in the south east accepted them and even preferred to take matters to them for adjudication and peacemaking rather than going to the police.
The Governor of Abia state, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, in a controversial move, approved the deployment of the Bakassi Boys to all rural communities of the state to protect the people from attacks by kidnappers and armed robbers.
However, the Bakassi boys were disbanded by President, Olusegun Obasanjo in 2003 following allegations that the group derailed and got involved in the killing of innocent people.
Shortly after the establishment of Lokpanta cattle market in Umunneochi Local Government Area in 2004 by the then Governor of Abia state, Mr. Orji Uzo Kalu, there were frequent reports of kidnappings and armed robbery in the Southeast states. Most of the reported cases of kidnapping happened along Enugu – Port Harcourt express road close to Lokpanta.
According to a statement by the Youth Leader of Umunneochi LGA, Prince Divine Uche, kidnappings in the area by suspected herdsmen have become a daily routine despite efforts by the state government to curb the menace. He said that before now, only women who went to the farms were abducted and raped by the rampaging herders but nowadays, they invade homes to grab women for rape.
Recent high profile abductees include the Prelate of the Methodist Church of Nigeria, Dr Samuel Kanu-Uche. The prelate was kidnapped in June 2022 near Lokpanta cattle market while returning from a program alongside his chaplain, Abidemi Shittu, and the Church’s Owerri Bishop, Dennis Okechukwu. They were released nearly two days later after paying 100 million naira as ransom to the kidnappers. In an interview with journalists shortly after he was released by his abductors, Mr Kanu-Uche said the people who kidnapped him were Fulani herdsmen. He said the lead kidnapper who spoke both Fulani and Igbo languages. The kidnap boss confessed to him that he grew up in Umuahia and that his late father was a Fulani herdsman. Uche said the kidnapper also confessed that he was responsible for all the kidnappings taking place around Lokpanta axis and that he and his gang kidnap people for ransom. He also confessed that he started kidnapping people because he needed money to take care of his siblings since his parents are dead and he had no means of livelihood.
Kidnappers Invoke False Narrative of Farmer-Herder
In another incident, thirteen people, including twelve men and one woman were on Sunday 4th September, 2022 kidnapped on the outskirts of Isuochi town in Abia State by a gang of Fulanis. According to the witnesses, the kidnappers said they were kidnapping people in the south east to ensure that the south easterners pay for their cows killed during farmers – herders clash in some communities in the area.
Again on June 25, 2023, gunmen suspected to be Fulani herdsmen took over the 15 Enugu-Ugwuogo-Opi-Nsukka Road, abducting 16 travelers despite over 15 military and police checkpoints on the road.
An account of the incident given by a resident of the community claimed that the herders numbered over 30 — including teenagers — attacked four vehicles, and kidnapped some of the passengers.
Reacting to these reports on the alleged criminal activities of Fulani cattle herders in the Southeast states, the Abia State Governor, Dr. Alex Otti, set up an investigative panel to find out the nature of activities that was going on at the Lokpanta cattle market. Upon the conclusion of their investigation in October, 2023, the panel found 50 decomposing corpses, including 20 headless ones, as well as countless skeletons at the cattle market.
The corpses, according to the report, were discovered by security operatives during a raid of the forest around the Lokpanta cattle market in the Umunneochi area of the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway. The dead bodies found in the forests around the cattle market were believed to be those of people who could not pay ransoms.
A scholarly article titled, ‘Socio-Economic Effects of Kidnapping in South-East Nigeria’ written by Linus C. Nnamani and published by World Journal of Management and Behavioral Studies in 2015 shows that between January 2007 and June, 2011, a total of twenty-one high profile kidnappings were reported in the Southeast states of Nigeria. Among the victims identified by the author include Nollywood actors Pete Edochie and Nkem Owoh. Others are the wife of billionaire businessman, Mr. Frank Nneji, daughter of former deputy governor of Imo state, Engr. Ebere Udeagu, a member of Imo state House of Assembly, Mr. Simeon Iwunze, a member of Anambra state House of Assembly, Mr.Joseph Dimobi, 78 yr old father of the then governor of central bank of Nigeria, Chukwuma Soludo, chairman of GOU motors, Mr. Godwin Okere, Chairman of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, Comrade Wahab Oba, wife of the then Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Breweries, Mr. Festus Odimegwu and the Traditional Rulers of Abagana, Agwa and Orodo.
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Ebere Inyama reports on crime for TruthNigeria from Abia State.
