One of the Buildings Torched at Ihiala Local Government Council Headquarters
Targeted by insurgents and virtually abandoned by the government, Ihiala Town lies desolate and Ihiala people are traumatised
By Mayor Ikoroha
Ihiala, the administrative headquarters and largest town in Ihiala Local Government Area of Anambra State, has been in the news lately. On Thursday 12th January 2023, gunmen set ablaze five buildings in Ihiala Local Government Headquarters, killing four vigilantes in the process. Horrific images shared on social media showed the buildings being consumed by flames with no help in the form of firefighters available to ameliorate the situation.
Confirming the incident and providing further details, the spokesperson of the Anambra State Police Command, Tochukwu Ikenga, stated that the attackers beheaded one of the victims. He also said they set the five buildings on fire, using improvised explosive devices (IEDs). He, however, said the police and military operatives in Ihiala neutralized one of the attackers after responding to a distress call at about 2:55 am on Thursday.
Commenting further, Mr Ikenga said the joint force operatives also recovered two locally made IED launchers, seven undetonated IEDs, forty pieces of live cartridges, fifteen live 7.62MM AK-47 ammunition, knives, charms, and other dangerous weapons, adding that the joint force operatives’ engagement with the arsonists obstructed them from causing further damages, while some escaped with bullet wounds.
The incident was the latest attack of hoodlums on institutions and security formations in Ihiala. On 28th December 2022, some assailants attacked the Divisional Police Headquarters in Ihiala and burned down parts of the building. According to eyewitness reports, the hoodlums in a large numbers stormed the police facility and started shooting sporadically, thereby scaring police officers on duty away, before setting the building on fire.
Mr Ikenga also confirmed the incident, telling newsmen, “Our operatives in the early hours of today 28/12/2022 engaged some gunmen who attacked Ihiala police divisional headquarters and recovered one abandoned Ak47 rifle. The gunmen escaped the scene due to the superior fire of the police operatives, and no casualty was recorded. Unfortunately, the explosives the gunmen threw inside the police station building had already ignited a fire and affected the building.”
Some days before the Ihiala Local Government Headquarters was razed, precisely on Tuesday 10th January 2023, some unidentified gunmen killed four persons at Nzomiwu Street in Eziani Community, Ihiala. According to news reports, the gunmen invaded the community and started shooting into the air, thereby killing the victims – three males and a female, who was said to be pregnant. Some eyewitnesses stated that all the victims were from the northern part of the country and that the gunmen immediately fled the scene after killing the victims. Though the reason for the attack could not be ascertained, it is believed in several quarters that it is ethnically motivated.
Before these incidents, on December 5, 2022, hoodlums attacked the head office of Ihiala Vigilante and burnt not less than ten patrol vehicles worth over N150m as well as eight motorcycles and other vehicles parked there. They set the office on fire and killed a member of the vigilante identified as Orji from Umudara Ihiala in the process. This particular incident went virtually unreported in the press.
The nascent insurgency in the Southeastern part of Nigeria began with a military conflict that broke out in Orlu, Imo State, Nigeria on 22 January 2021, when the Nigerian Army moved to crush the paramilitary wing of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), the Eastern Security Network (ESN). The conflict escalated after the ESN managed to repulse the initial push by the Nigerian Army, but IPOB ended the initial crisis by unilaterally withdrawing the ESN from Orlu. After a few weeks of quiet, Nigeria launched a military offensive in the area to destroy the ESN. On 19 February 2021, IPOB declared that as of the day before, a state of war existed between Nigeria and Biafra.
Since these incidents, most parts of the South East, especially Imo, Anambra and Enugu States and to a lesser extent Ebonyi State have become hotbeds of conflict, whereby terror is unleashed at the citizenry in different forms. Kidnapping for ransom, armed robbery, burning of state institutions, assassinations and wanton arson and killing have become the order of the day. Social media is awash with videos and images of individuals killed by hoodlums nicknamed ‘Unknown Gunmen.’ Many people from the South East living outside the area no longer set foot in their local communities and traditional marriages and burials are now conducted in cities and urban areas.
According to a security expert who does not want his name to be mentioned, criminal elements have taken over the conflict as 80% of the attacks on individuals and institutions have nothing to do with the nascent Biafran agitation. It is majorly a case of hardened criminals taking advantage of the insecurity created by the armed struggle embarked on by the secessionists to unleash terror on the populace to their own advantage.
Even though there is a recognition that most areas of the South East have been affected by the ongoing crisis, the case of Ihiala is peculiar. As stated earlier, within barely a month, ten vigilante vehicles, eight motorcycles and the vigilante office have been burnt, the police headquarters have been bombed and partially destroyed, four settlers including a pregnant woman have been killed and eight buildings in the local government headquarters have been razed. These are besides the kidnapping of prominent individuals living in Ihiala and those living outside the area who ventured to set foot in their indigenous community. On December 24, 2022, a Lagos-based businessman was kidnapped the same day he returned home from Lagos. He was said to have been released some days later after ransom running into tens of millions of naira was paid.
The question is, ‘Why Ihiala?’ Why is this one peaceful, prosperous community been targeted by hoodlums?
While there may not be any simple or single answer to this question, the particular location of Ihiala and the nature of the ongoing insurgency in the South East make the place vulnerable to attacks by the so-called Unknown Gunmen. Ihiala is situated midway on the Trunk ‘A’ road that links Onitsha and Owerri. It is surrounded in the north by Okija, in the East by Azia and Mbosi in the southeast by Ubulu Isizor and in the West by Urasi River. This strategic location enabled Ihiala to prosper and become more famous than her neighbours in the past. Unfortunately, it is perhaps the main reason why Ihiala has become the epicentre of the insurgency in the South East.
The different entry routes to Ihiala including river access mean that it is difficult to secure and protect Ihiala from insurgents who usually come in from neighbouring communities. The Azia/Mbosi entry route which makes Ihiala easily accessible to Old Orlu zone, the largest zone in Imo State and the second most industrialized after Old Owerri Zone has become an easy access route to hoodlums coming from Orsu Ihiteokwa, Ihitenasa, Awo Idemili and other areas in Imo State where the South East insurgency began and where it is deeply embedded. Urasi River will always be a viable entry and exit route for hoodlums while the Onitsha-Owerri Expressway, unarguably the busiest road in the South East complicates the security situation in Ihiala.
The human cost of the insurgency on Ihiala is incalculable. Many lives have been lost. Aside from the local vigilante killed during the attack on Ihiala Vigilante Head Office and the settlers that were murdered in cold blood, some other security personnel have lost their lives including one Chinyere from Umueze Ihiala and another person from Okporo Ihiala, felled by the armed men during an attack. An aged, harmless security man, who manned the entrance gate to the Ihiala Local Government Headquarters for years, was killed as the hoodlums stormed the place to set the buildings on fire.
The import of these killings, arson and destruction in this town straddled at the centre of a festering crisis is that the inhabitants live in palpable fear and terror. Many indigenes of Ihiala have relocated from the town to other places out of fear of their lives. Many prominent persons from the community have not only shunned setting foot on their home soil, but they have also equally relocated their relatives.
The economic cost is enormous. Businesses have either crumbled or relocated from the community. Ihiala indigenes who were investing in the community in the patriotic Igbo spirit of ‘aku ruo ulo’ have abandoned the investments. The near absence of weddings and burials will always come at a huge cost to the economy of the community. Event planners, photographers, local musicians and dance groups, sellers of drinks and other items used in events and dealers of building materials, amongst others have been virtually driven out of business. Ihiala used to bustle during the Christmas/new year period. However, during the last Christmas/new year festivities, Ihiala was like a ghost town.
Beyond the kidnapping for ransom, the attack on security formations and the attack on state institutions in Ihiala by the hoodlums are believed to be motivated by the determination of hoodlums to instil fear in the minds of the people. And it is working for them to an extent.
Towards the end of last year, word went around that the hoodlums have banned any burial in Ihiala community from the 1st to the 15th of January, 2023. And this was almost religiously observed. Some inhabitants of Ihiala who are intent on holding weddings and burials in the community have been said to have paid huge sums of money to the hoodlums ostensibly to get their permission for the events to hold.
The major tragedy of Ihiala is that the town seemed to have been abandoned by the government to its fate. While the indigenes of the community have contributed tens of millions of naira to secure their local community by purchasing vehicles, providing logistics and remuneration to the local security outfit and even paying huge sums of money to the state government to ‘assist’ the state in providing security in their community, the attitude of both the state and federal government to the community have been worrisome.
In the aftermath of the virtual razing of the local government headquarters and the killing of some security personnel, the state governor, Professor Charles Soludo has not deemed it fit to visit the scene of the incident or send any of the officials of the government to do so. Even the efforts of the leaders of the community to see the governor in order to appeal for help were fruitless as they were not granted access to the governor.
The prevailing security set-up in the area does not help Ihiala in any way. Unlike areas in neighbouring Imo State with similar issues, the Ihiala Divisional Police Station is not equipped with proper security gadgets like Armoured Security Carriers (APCs) and no special security arrangements or funding have been put in place by both the state and federal governments to stem the insurgency and obliterate or at least check the hoodlums.
Over the stretch of about 80 kilometres Onitsha-Owerri Expressway, where Ihiala is straddled in the middle, the Anambra section constitutes about two-thirds of the road. However, the checkpoint located at Abbot Boys Ihiala is the only checkpoint of the Nigerian Army in the Anambra section. In contrast, the Imo State section has two Army checkpoints. Also, the Counter-Terrorism Unit (CTU) has two checkpoints at the Imo State section and none at the Anambra State section. This is in spite of the fact that there are more security flashpoints in the Anambra State section than in the Imo State section. It is either Anambra State is being marginalised by the federal government in terms of security or the state government is not serious in the provision of security for her citizenry.
This seeming uncaring attitude of the incumbent administration of Governor Soludo to the Ihiala security situation is worrisome considering the fact that it was actually Ihiala Local Government Area that affirmed his victory as governor during the gubernatorial elections in November 2021. As it happened, the election was initially declared inconclusive owing to some issues regarding irregularities and insecurity in Ihiala Local Government Area. When a date was set for a re-run election in Ihiala, it is believed that stakeholders from Ihiala came together and encouraged voters from the area to vote for Soludo and his party, the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA). In the end, Soludo/APGA got almost 70% of the votes cast in Ihiala LGA and the former CBN governor was declared the winner of the election.
So why would the governor pay Ihiala back by abandoning the place and people to their fate as they are being terrorised by hoodlums?
Ihiala and her people have been neglected in the recent past by successive governments in Anambra State. During the administration of the immediate past governor, Willie Obiano, no major road project or infrastructure was situated in Ihiala area. But the place has continued to thrive, mainly due to the sheer will of the people of the community.
However, there are limits to which self-help can go. Security is an area that government help and commitment are indispensable. This is the reason why both the federal and state governments should come to the aid of Ihiala, a town being decimated by insurgency.
Mayor Ikoroha, the editor-in-chief of AAMagazine, wrote from Asaba. He can be reached at mayor@aamagazine.net
