Amnesty Group Challenges Military, Claims Evidence Exists Of Extrajudicial Killings In The Southeast

  Amnesty Group Challenges Military, Claims Evidence Exists Of Extrajudicial Killings In The Southeast

Amnesty International says it possesses concrete evidence including names and addresses of individuals allegedly killed extrajudicially by the Nigerian military in the South-East geopolitical zone of the country.

“We have our evidence and we are very glad to present those evidence. We are always in touch with families of victims and believe there is a need to do a soul-searching.

“Let us sit down, look at those cases, find out who did what and when, and make sure that the full weight of the law comes in to ensure justice for the victims,” said the Country Director for Amnesty International Nigeria, Isa Sanusi, on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Friday.

In its latest report, ‘A Decade of Impunity: Attacks and Unlawful Killings in Southeast Nigeria’, the group accused the Nigerian police, military, the regional security outfit Ebube Agu, and non-state actors of widespread human rights abuses in the region.

It documents over 1,844 deaths between January 2021 and June 2023, alongside cases of torture, enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests, and other violations.

However, the Director of Defence Media Operations, Major General Markus Kangye, had rejected Amnesty’s findings, insisting that the military does not engage in extrajudicial killings in the South-East or anywhere in Nigeria. He said security operations in the zone have reduced the capacity of criminal elements.

Sanusi dismissed claims by the Defence Headquarters that the organisation was consistently targeting the military

“I think what the defence spokesperson said is completely wrong. In the report, we also mentioned places where military men were executed or their barracks attacked. It is not about consistency in condemning the military; what we are doing is the honest thing, saying that we have cases,” he stated.

The group’s country director said that many of the extra-judicial killings occurred during operations in areas suspected of harbouring members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) or its armed wing, the Eastern Security Network (ESN). In some cases, individuals were picked up from their homes and never seen again, he said.

He further revealed that Amnesty interviewed 100 people, mostly face-to-face in the South-East, for its report, and wrote to the military about the allegations, but reportedly got no response, stressing that they have nothing against the military.

“In this investigation, we interviewed 100 people, 95 of them face-to-face in the South-East. Before releasing the report, we sent the military a letter informing them of the allegations and requesting any information that could help us understand how their operations affect human rights. We received no response,” Sanusi stated.

Amnesty noted that the rights organisation “have nothing against the military.” “Our records include victims killed not only by the military, but also by the police and the Ebube Agu, which was set up by some governors to address insecurity but has instead become a tool of abuse,” he said.

We May Not Have a Country in 2027 – El-Rufai Warns

 We May Not Have a Country in 2027 – El-Rufai  Warns 

Nasir El-Rufai, the former governor of Kaduna State, has issued a warning about Nigeria’s future, declaring that the country’s survival is at risk if the All Progressives Congress (APC) wins the 2027 general elections.

Speaking on Saturday, August 2, in Sokoto at a grassroots mobilisation rally for the opposition coalition led by the African Democratic Congress (ADC), El-Rufai made clear his intention to campaign vigorously against the ruling party.

“I’m not in politics to get anything for myself. I’m in politics to serve,” he stated

“When the government does not serve the people, it is my duty as a senior citizen to come out and condemn it and take steps to reverse the situation.

“That is why we come together as people opposed to the policies of this government to form the coalition, which has resulted in the adoption of ADC,” he explained.

El-Rufai, a former key member of the APC, said he is committed to rallying Nigerians across the country to unseat the party, describing it as “incompetent.”

“We are in Sokoto to begin the process of mobilising Nigerians against the APC government anywhere and the federal government in Abuja,” he said.

“I believe that if we allow this party and the government to continue for a second term in office, what remains of Nigeria’s social capital will be destroyed, and we may not have a country at all. This is a fight for our lives.”

El-Rufai was once a founding figure of the APC but left the party in March 2025 to join the Social Democratic Party (SDP) following the Senate’s refusal to confirm his ministerial nomination, reportedly due to security concerns.

However, his time in the SDP was short-lived. The party expelled him and imposed a 30-year ban, citing alleged forgery of membership documents, among other accusations.

Now a leading figure in the opposition ADC, El-Rufa’i joins other prominent politicians in working against the APC ahead of the 2023 polls.

Your Tactics of Deceit and Falsehoods are Ineffective, IPOB Blasts The Telegraph and the UK Government, Threatens legal Action for Defamation

Your Tactics of Deceit and Falsehoods are Ineffective, IPOB Blasts The Telegraph and the UK Government, Threatens legal Action for Defamation

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) movement has responded to the contentious article published by the online UK newspaper, The Telegraph, labeling it as a misleading narrative and misinformation intended to provoke the people of the Biafra region against the IPOB movement.

This information was conveyed in a press release issued by the press secretary of the IPOB Directorate of States, Mazi Okadigbo Chinwendum. The statement accused the British government of having an obsession with the Biafra region, thereby orchestrating a malicious agenda to instigate disorder within the area.

The IPOB representative refuted the claims made by the UK national newspaper regarding the movement's alleged role in the insecurity in South-East Nigeria due to the sit-at-home directive, asserting that the order had been rescinded by the IPOB leadership but was exploited by provocateurs funded by the Nigerian government to execute deceptive violent operations against the region and its inhabitants subsequently.

Furthermore, the statement disclosed that the IPOB movement, through its European continental representative, Mazi Austin Agbanyim, had provided a thorough and detailed response to a questionnaire posed by The Telegraph concerning this matter, but ultimately, it was disregarded by the latter.

The statement reads, "The Directorate of State of the Indigenous People of Biafra (DOS) have received with great disappointment a publication made by the Telegraph of UK on Saturday the 26th of July 2025 with the obvious intention to turn the minds of the international community and humans rights groups and as well as  incite the Biafran people against IPOB." 

"It is indeed a shame that at this time and age, the British government has continued to sponsor campaigns of calumny against a defenceless people against whom they the British sponsored an annihilating genocide in 1967-70."

"The British government is still obsessed with the Igbo people and the entire Biafra people. This can only be the explanation why a British tabloid just like the BBC would be interested in deception and falsehood." 

"The clearest evidence of their hatred to the Biafran people and IPOB is that they deliberately refused to publish the information given to them by Mazi sponsored genocide on Christian and Anglican IGBO and Biafran people using Muslims and islamic jihadists."

The statement also stated that the British government is perturbed over the diplomatic strides recorded by the IPOB movement for Biafra self-determination quest, thus resorting to deceitful ploys of misinformation. However, it assured that the IPOB movement nor the Eastern Security Network solely tasked to confront the Fulani killer herdsmen in the region, are responsible for the violence or enforcement of sit at home orders in the South-East. 

"We are aware that the British government is a bit jittery of the recent diplomatic engagement and successes recorded by the DOS on the Biafra restoration freedom and liberation project. They they are angry and disappointed that we survived their evil onslaught of 1967-70 and still focused on our right to a sovereign Biafra Nation today." 

"However, they should understand that they no longer hold the monopoly of information dissemination."

"Let the world be placed on notice once again, that at no time did IPOB or ESN personnel attacked our people on the streets of Biafraland or anywhere else. ESN has always been in the bushes and farmlands protecting our farmers, people and borders from Fulani terror herdsmen who are partly sponsored by the British government." 

"The DOS will no longer take the deliberate actions of certain government and foreign interest sponsored media houses and journalists whether locally or internationally whose set objective is to tarnish the hard earned image of IPOB, lightly — be they in Nigeria, in the UK or anywhere in the world. 

"Therefore, IPOB leadership demands an unreserved apology from the Telegraph of UK or consider the likelihood of a legal action against them. Enough is Enough!"

Family Writers Press International