The South-East based human rights organisation decried that Imo State as becoming an animal kingdom where life had become endangered, nasty, short and brutish.
As reactions continue to trail the vicious attack on the spokesperson of the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), Ikenga Ugochinyere, the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), has described it as part of "diabolical anti-democracy resistance by state autocrats."
The South-East based human rights organisation decried that Imo State as becoming an animal kingdom where life had become endangered, nasty, short and brutish.
SaharaReporters had reported on Saturday that gunmen suspected to be political thugs attacked the Akokwa country home of the CUPP Spokesman Ugochinyere, in Ideato North Local Government Area of Imo State, burnt his house, vehicles and killed four people including his uncle. He survived by whiskers.
It had been reported that reactions continued to trail the attack.
Reacting to the incident, Intersociety in statement made available to SaharaReporters on Tuesday, which was signed by its principal officers - Emeka Umeagbalasi, Obianuju Joy Esq, Chinwe Umeche Esq and Chidinma Udegbunam Esq said that Imo State government and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should be blamed and held responsible for the attack.
The statement partly read, "Imo State has now become ‘Nigeria’s capital of sub-national dictatorship and lawlessness-where state instruments of coercion have collapsed and been converted to instruments for pursuit of political vendetta and terrorisation of defenceless citizens and their properties using false labeling, class criminalization and stigmatization.
"Imo also leads Anambra and Ebonyi States as three sub-national entities or states in Southern Nigeria where criminals are now treated by political authorities as law abiding citizens as against law abiding citizens accorded the status of criminals or criminal class.
"In the three States, too, it is now a crime to be law abiding or engage in meaningful/lawful activities with political authorities arming criminals to unleash mayhem on such law abiding citizens for chosen to be law abiding and stay off crimes or social vices.
"Imo State has further become “Nigeria’s champion of destruction” by being ‘the most terrorised; followed by Enugu in Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen invasions, abductions and killings; military and police extrajudicial killings, abductions and disappearances; burning down of defenceless civilians’ houses and other property destructions by military, police, armed counterfeit agitators and “Government Unknown Gunmen”.
The organisation disclosed that the State tops the list of assaults and attacks on women including frame-ups and indiscriminate arrests, "unlawful detention, class criminalisation, custodial torture, sexual violence and open and custodial killing of women of menopausal and non menopausal age brackets. In the same Imo State, civil and security abductions and killings have become a recurring decimal averaging at least ten abductions/killings per day."
Intersociety however, maintained that "the Government of Imo State and the Independent National Electoral Commission are vicariously behind the latest Akokwa Mayhem in Ideato North Local Government Area of Imo State involving massive burning down of several houses, automobiles and other valuable properties by “Government Unknown Gunmen” in the ancestral home of Hon Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, PDP’s House of Reps Candidate for Ide-Ato Federal Constituency.
"In the mayhem that ensued, not only that several defenseless properties were set ablaze and burned beyond recognition, but also unspecified number of defenseless citizens including an uncle to the PDP House of Reps Candidate were shot and killed or injured.
"It must also be clearly pointed out that the attacks on the PDP House of Reps Candidate are expressly and vicariously linked to his outspokenness especially his recent disclosure of several rigging plots by INEC and Government of Imo State ahead of the 2023 General Elections particularly the Presidential Poll fixed for 25th Feb 2023.
"Hon Ugochinyere Ikenga Imo had on 14th Sept 2022, in his capacity as the National Spokesperson of the Coalition of the Registered Political Parties or CUPP, graphically exposed how INEC and Government of Imo State doctored and inflated the National Register of Voters with fictitious identities in Imo State and had same replicated in about 22 States numbering not less than 10m fake names as “INEC registered voters”.
"The CUPP, with PDP’s Ugochinyere Ikenga Imo as their spokesperson, had also on 21st Nov 2022 raised fresh alarms with more discoveries including uncovering the harvesting of over 10m PVCs and their owners’ Voter Identification Numbers (VINs) using different phony charities and names spread across majority of the country’s 36 States."
Intersociety added that, "Nigeria’s State autocrats are engaging in several diabolical anti-democracy resistances against the tireless efforts of the risen and unyielding democratic forces to re-write Nigeria’s dark democracy history especially in Feb 2023 Presidential Poll.
"Nigeria under Buhari/Osinbajo had witnessed darkest transformation into dictatorship and thievery including transformation of the country’s state actor democratic institutions (Police, Military, INEC, anti-corruption Bodies, Justice Bodies, etc and their oversight institutions, etc) into anti-democratic institutions including instruments for polling rigging and public office corruption.”
Intersociety, however, warned that insistence of the Nigerian State establishments to massively rig next month’s Presidential Poll will have far reaching post presidential poll short term, medium term and long term consequences on Nigeria.