‘There is nothing like unknown gunmen in Southeast’

A political analyst and member of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Ilyasu Gadu, has said there is nothing like “unknown gunmen” wreaking havoc on the Southeast.

He made the submission while speaking Tuesday night on Trust Tv’s political programme, Daily Politics.

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Gunmen have been attacking government infrastructure and personnel, especially security operatives, in the Southeast for a while now but the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) being blamed by the government has repeatedly denied its involvement in the violence.

But Gadu, a senatorial aspirant of the PRP in Taraba South, said it was hard for someone to be perpetuating evil in the Southeast and not be identified, insisting that Igbo society allows dwellers in a community to know one another.

He said, “I agree that the government’s treatment of the violence and insecurity all over the country has been abysmal.

“One of the mantras of this government, before it came into power, was to tackle insecurity but it has become worse beyond how we knew it before and all we hear are excuses.

“These things are happening repeatedly all over Nigeria and there has not been any solution or attempt to do anything about it but that should not make us believe that this violence is being perpetrated by unknown people.

“For you to do these things repeatedly, there is just no way people will not know.

“First of all, you need to have a stagging place, training, deployment and all that.

“These are things that can not be done without the knowledge of one, two, three, four, five people. At the moment these things are known, it has become known.”

Gadu said Nigerians had politicised violence, adding that it has become an instrument of political engagement and the security agencies are bewildered about what to do.

“These things are allowed to go on because of political correctness. You don’t want to handle it because you feel it will affect your political fortune,” he lamented.

He warned that Nigeria should not continue in the circle of denial, calling on the government to take action.

‘IPOB not responsible’
On his part, Katchu Ononuju, Southeast presidency advocate, also speaking on the programme, said the federal government should be blamed for what is happening in the Southeast and Nigeria at large.

He said, “Who do I blame most? It is President (Muhammed) Buhari and his weaponisation of Nepotism as a policy of the state.

“We don’t know who attack the state, bunt down police stations and the killings.

“The Nigerian government took offence with the British government’s publication that it was going to give assylum to whoever opposes the Nigerian government.

“After that was done, within a fortnight, violence sprung all over the place.

“When the organisation [IPOB] said they are not responsible for the violence, the government said they are responsible and I know the organisation has already cracked.

“We are dealing with a government that is fundamentally dishonest. If IPOB said ‘we didn’t do it’, it is now left for me to choose who to believe or not.”

He lamented that over 200 violent actions had taken place in the Southeast and no prosecutions had been made to date.

Ononuju said: “I condemn the killings but I can not tell you I know who is doing it.

“I will follow Abacha’s words, ‘If it lasts one week, the government knows about it’. How come no prosecutions?”