Before you blame the Eastern Security Network(ESN) for every criminal activities in Southeast, please find the answer to the above question headline.

Few months after the launch of ESN in December 2020 to fill in the gap because Southeast governors failed to create a security outfit that would protect the region against incessant Fulani herdsmen terrorist attacks, Hope Uzodimma rushed the next year to form Ebubeagu in Imo State and recruited Asari Dokubo boys for the sole purpose of blackmailing and impersonating the Indigenous People of Biafra(IPOB) Movement, and ESN.

Same 2021, Ebubeagu boys were noted to have camps in several Orlu and Okigwe communities from where they went about attacking, intimidating, killing innocent people, burning many people’s houses and kidnapping some for ransom. Some PGs and traditional rulers who protested these their unprofessional methods were brutally killed, their palaces, houses vandalized and burned down. And till date, Ebubeagu had no office or station. Yet the Imo State government announced to have set up Ebubeagu in the state. Without government oversight and accountability, these recruited strangers went on to maim many Igbo youths without mercy or respect to human life. Ebubeagu did not for one day go after Fulani herdsmen, instead, they went on a killing spree on Igbo youths.

In one infamous occasion in 2022, these Ebubeagu boys killed 14 Igbo people who were on transit to a traditional wedding in their neighboring community. Among them were two twin brothers and only sons of their family. There were many reports of the activities of these Ebubeagu boys in Imo State from 2021 to 2023, until they splitted into groups now controlled by some Imo politicians for their selfish political purposes.

Nonsonkwa, a Radio presenter at Ozisa FM in Owerri, Imo State then was one of the voices calling out the atrocities of these Ebubeagu boys in Imo State. Seeking justice for families of victims of Ebubeagu menace, and calling out the Imo State government to tackle the Ebubeagu rascalities. Instead, NonsoNkwa faced several assassination attempts on his life. The Imo State government targeted NonsoNkwa and later abducted him. All these because he was vocal and using his platform to speak against Ebubeagu atrocities in Imo State. NonsoNkwa is still alive today, people can go and verify from him or visit his platform.

To shield their criminality, these Ebubeagu boys always cover their faces with masks and mount unauthorized check points along community roads within Orlu and Okigwe. They usually speak Pidgin English and barely speak Igbo fluently. They move around with government donated pickup vans and Sienna with inscription reading, ‘Ebubeagu’. They were the people many ignorant and gullible Orlu residents christened as “Unknown Gunmen” and “ụmụ ọma Sienna” in 2021/2022.

Later, Ikéngà UgoChinyere’s home was attacked and burned down by these same Ebubeagu, used by the government against opposition and dissent voices in Imo State, many people who are tagging IPOB/ESN to every crime in Igboland today were not speaking up against Ebubeagu and their rascalities then.

While being recruited as Ebubeagu and used to cause insecurity in Southeast, go after political oppositions, assassinate dissent voices, kidnap many people and intimidate unyielding business and political enemies, did Asari Dokubo not say that those boys killing in Imo and Anambra were his boys recruited by the government? Did he not say that the government contracted them to work as agent provocateurs by impersonating of ESN so they can blackmail Nnamdi Kanu and IPOB/ESN as a violent organization?

Did Asari Dokubo not say these things with his mouth in video?

Where are those Asari Dokubo boys today? Have they left Southeast? Where were they camping in 2021? In which community were they operating from, since 2021? Have those guns in their possession been withdrawn from them or, are they still working for the government against opposition politicians and to blackmail IPOB in Imo State and Anambra State?

Asari Dokubo boastfully indicted Imo State government and Anambra in videos, and the question now is, has the government of Imo State come out to deny what Asari said?

Why was all the insecurities in Southeast heavily happening within Imo and Anambra? Why not in other states like Abia, Ebonyi and Enugwu which Asari did not mention?

Why is it only in Orlu, Okigwe, Ihiala, Uli where Ebubeagu created their camps in 2021 that insecurities emanate from?

Who still controls these groups of criminals recruited in 2021?

These are questions begging for answers, but who will provide them?

Just as Soludo recruited and launched Udogachi out of nowhere, same thing was what Hope Uzodimma did in 2021. Instead of going after Fulani herdsmen terrorists in the bushes, Ebubeagu went into criminalities against the very people they lied they were coming to protect. And today, they have grown into many evil branches in Southeast and everyone is pointing fingers at IPOB/ESN.

It is therefore preposterous that each time these splinter groups of Ebubeagu criminals with arms engage in all sorts of criminal activities, the Nigerian government and media without investigation rush to tag them on IPOB/ESN. Even some misguided individuals who forgot when insecurity actually started will jump to accuse and blame IPOB/ESN for every crime in Southeast. Yet these people do not blame Fulani herdsmen terrorists for the attacks in Igboland same way they accuse ESN in every given instance.

It is easy to mention ESN in every crime because some governors in Southeast have created a safe haven for criminality to thrive out of their futile agenda to blackmail IPOB/ESN.

The ongoing heavy media propaganda against ESN is quite obvious, but we can assure these purveyors of blackmail one thing; their targeted misinformation will not dent the image and sterling works done by operatives of Eastern Security Network (ESN) under IPOB leadership in Southeast and beyond. IPOB have in several occasions issued statements that the primary duty of ESN is dislodging the marauding Fulani herdsmen terrorists who are massacring Igbo farmers and invading communities, not for any other activity in the cities. But these lies will bot deter ESN or IPOB.

The relative peace and reduced reports in the number of Fulani herdsmen attacks on communities in Southeast are testaments to the unwavering commitment by the operatives of ESN in Southeast. Wether many people acknowledge this or not, the work will always speak for itself.

Once again, before anyone accuses IPOB ESN of any crime in Southeast, where are those Asari Dokubo boys recruited in 2021 as Ebubeagu today?

When you find where they are today, then we can start talking about the insecurity in Southeast. Meanwhile, have your irrefutable evidences of ESN crimes before you come out to the public to accuse them. Because, as a peaceful organization, IPOB will not keep calm in the face of these spurious accusations.

Family Writers Press International