Attacks by unknown gunmen in Ideato North in particular, has had a devastating effect on families and farmers as thousands of frightened indigenes have fled their homes, leaving behind their comfortable abode and fertile farmlands. due to threats by their very hostile and merciless attackers.
As it is often the case, the warning of their attackers is always gory and ominous. True to their threats, Ideato North has been the worst hit as their enemies keep boasting of making the LGA uninhabitable.
No doubt, some parts of Orlu in Imo State too, seem to be the hottest axis. In particular, the Ihiala-Azia-Orsumoghu-Lilu-Isseke route that dovetails into Orsu side of Imo, is now dangerous.
Since Friday, January 20, 2023, villagers in Ndi-Imoko in Arondizuogu in Ideato North local government area of Imo State have absconded from their homes, no thanks to the abduction and beheading of their own, Chris Ahizu by gunmen.
Ahizu went to bed without any inkling of danger lurking. During the wee hours, the gunmen struck. They shot Ahizu and whisked him away alongside two of his aides. But before they left, they set his house and cars ablaze. That was the beginning of Ahizu’s ordeal and for Imoko community.
Soon enough, sources said the gunmen contacted his family through his phone and demanded ransom for his release. They settled for N6million which was delivered to the gunmen (the source refused to explain how), while the family awaited his return.
Unfortunately, that was not to be, as on Monday morning, people began to call to alert the family of his killing.
The gunmen had tied his hands behind him and knelt him down in a bush and beheaded him in cold blood. The gunmen went ahead to upload the act on Ohizu’s WhatsApp status, which alerted everyone about the killing.
Ahizu, until his death was the sole administrator of Ideato North local government area.
During the swearing in of the sole administrators, Governor Hope Uzodimma had charged them to return to their local government, reside there, and make the councils work again especially to reduce poverty levels.
LEADERSHIP Sunday gathered that Ahizu was a core supporter of Uzodimma as he left his sojourn abroad to lend his support to the governor.
Spokesperson for the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Imo state, Cajethan Duke described late Ahizu as “a fine gentleman, hospitable, but strong willed. His support for governor Uzodimma was unmistakable”.
Ahizu had followed Uzodimma’s instruction to the letter and immediately relocated to his country home at Ndi-Imoko in Arondizuogu in Ideato North local government as against live in Owerri as his predecessors did.
In the video, the gunmen warned Governor Hope Uzodimma that they will get him no matter the amount of armed security people in his convoy.
They accused him and others of releasing boko haram members in prison and moving them to Igboland to wreak havoc on Ndigbo.
According to them, they were not members of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra nor Eastern Security Network, but against elections holding.
They said their stand is for no election in Igboland. The gunmen while severing the council boss head warned thus “All of una go hear ween meaning (you all will receive it hot).
The Imo State government in a statement signed by the commissioner for Information and Strategy, Chief Declan Emelumba said it was saddened by the brutal and cruel murder saying, “The chilling assassination of Mr. Ahizu in cold blood is as benumbing as it is callous”.
The government said the killings were targeted at APC members, government officials, and their friends.
Further, they released a long list of APC members who had been killed in the state to include Hon. Mrs Jenny Rachael Okonkwo (Iron Lady), Orlu APC LGA woman leader; Nze Chidi Ejiaka; Barr. Darlington Odume: Nze Nwachukwu Igboayaka; Mrs Helen Nnakwe; Collins Okey Agah; Chukwudi Dimagwu; Eddy Ofuefule, all APC chieftains from Orlu and many others as well as Emma Mazi, former IMC chairman of Oguta LGA.
Truth be told, since the jailbreak at the Owerri Correctional Centre on August 5, 2021, insecurity, and violent killings have swept through the state leaving many dead and properties worth millions destroyed.
On their part, the Imo State Police command has commenced a manhunt for the gunmen behind the beheading of the kidnapped Ideato North local government area, Chris Ahizu.
In a statement signed by the new spokesperson, Henry Okoye, the Police Commissioner, Mohammed Ahmed Barde, said “The command wish to inform the good people of the State that, we are already on top of the situation following a high powered investigation team, inaugurated by the Commissioner of Police, and have since commenced technical investigation on the date of the abduction and have been on the trail of the hoodlums where tremendous progress was being made before the surfacing of the obscene video.
Unfortunately, Imoko has turned a ghost community as everyone has absconded, families have relocated to Owerri while some others have left the state entirely.
About three weeks ago, suspected hoodlums murdered an intending couple in Arondizuogu. The victims, Ifechukwu Martin and Gloria Mba, whose wedding was billed for January 18, 2023, were killed on Tuesday, January 10, at Arondizuogu in the Ideato North local government area of the state. The groom’s brother, who was driving them, was also killed in the incident, which caused panic in the area.
LEADERSHIP Sunday gathered that the groom had arrived Ideato for his wedding but while being conveyed in a tricycle to the house by his brother, gunmen attacked them at Ndiejezie Izuogu in Arondizuogu. The three occupants which included the groom, his brother, and bride, were killed instantly.
Also unresolved is the attack on the spokesperson of the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) Ikenga Ugochinyere Imo in Akokwa, which left three persons killed and over 25 vehicles totally razed.
A source who pleaded anonymity complained that despite the presence of a Mopol base in ogboko, Ideato North local government area, there was near absence of police presence in the council.
The source who pleaded anonymity said “I have been making report since last year and early this year till now no single presence of the police anywhere in Arondizuogu and no single arrest. We are now at the mercy of God. Houses are burnt, people killed, and cars are not spared”, he lamented.
The fact remains that while some victims are lucky to have escaped, others, not fortunate are felled by the blood thirsty hounds. Many have been wasted on Ideato north lately. Riding on a good car and appearing well-fed are two considerations that in most cases, give out one for extermination on that stretch.
In some parts of Orlu local government area for instance, the situation is not funny. Reports of killings and other criminal activities are almost daily. Popular Okporo, Nkwo-Ito and Banana Junctions in the council, are now deadly spots where severed human heads and headless bodies are occasionally displayed by faceless goons. The sad story replicates in other parts of the zone.
Concerned Nigerians and Ndigbo have been forced to describe the wicked developments as disgusting and as one that run against the sanctity of blood underlined in the Igbo philosophy of “Mma-Ndu” (Mmadu), the spice of life. They often describe what they term as odious development as a clear aberration to what the Igbo represents, stressing emphatically that, what the loose gangs parading in the zone are doing, amounts to self-immolation as the society and the people are the losers, ultimately.
Already, families in Ideato North have stopped holding wedding, house or child dedication, and burial ceremonies for fear of attacks and the question is for how long? For certain, nobody wants to be caught in the crossfire but with the elections just weeks away, how safe is Ideato North and Imo state?
Conclusively, this report is a clarion call to every Ndigbo of good conscience to stand up in condemnation of the gradual but steady destruction of Ideato and the Southeast in general. This is because, it will be dangerous for the concerned authorities to stand aloof while the area burns. Recall that when Boko Haram launched its campaigns in 2009 in the Northeast, it started this way, before widening its murderous engagements to other parts of the country.
There is need to engage the youths of the zone for a lasting solution to the uncertainties in the region. The ugly situation in the Southeast must be addressed to save the zone from its present sorry state.
