Imo State residents Protest over purported killings of 14 people
Nigerian police officers stand in the streets of Abuja during clashes with members of the shiite Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) on July 22, 2019. - The Shiites are protesting against the detention of IMN leader Ibrahim Zakzaky. Six Shiite protesters were killed in clashes with Nigerian police in the capital Abuja, witnesses told AFP on July 22. (Photo by Kola SULAIMON / AFP)
14 young people are reported to have been killed by suspected Ebubeagu Security Network members in Awomama, a hamlet in Imo State‘s Oru East Local Government Area.
The occurrence took place on Sunday.
The victims, who were from the nearby town of Otulu, were alleged to have traveled with a young man to the nearby Awomama Community for a wedding ceremony.
When the teenagers were coming from the wedding ceremony, PREMIUM TIMES learned that the alleged Ebubeagu operatives opened fire on them, instantly killing 14 of them.
“The Ebubeagu operatives took deliberate steps to make certain that the young men were dead. Those who still moved (their bodies) were finished off with a volley of bullets,” Nnamdi Agbor, the President-General of Otulu Community, was quoted saying in the local media.
Mr. Agbor claimed that many of the people who fled into a neighboring bush are still missing, and several others who suffered gunshot wounds were taken to the hospital.
Youths from the neighborhood demonstrated against the killings on Monday by marching through the neighborhood’s streets and main thoroughfares.
On social media, protest video clips have started circulating.
PREMIUM TIMES was able to view one of the videos in which the protesting children were seen loading trucks and wheelbarrows with the bodies.
The youngsters called on the Imo State Government to dissolve the security network while cursing the Ebubeagu.
“These are the people that Ebubeagu agents killed. They were all killed—14 of them—as they were leaving a wedding ceremony, said a voice in the distance.
In another video, some locals can be seen seeing some corpses that have been thrown alongside the road in a gutter.
They said that the attack on the youths was organized by a commander in the Ebubeagu.
“Ogwu Mozambique, the leader of Ebubeagu, is murdering his brothers without justification.
One of the locals can be heard in the video saying, “Someone that they have tagged as a terrorist in Mozambique, came back and was given Ebubeagu commander.”
Michael Abattam, the state’s police spokesperson, verified the youths’ deaths.
He claimed that an inquiry into the incident by the police has started.
The governors of the five states in the South-east formed Ebubeagu in 2021 as a security organization to aid in the fight against insecurity in the area.
However, the security organization has been mostly active in the states of Ebonyi and Imo.
PREMIUM TIMES
