•Being the second and concluding part of a Joint International Report By Nigeria’s Intersociety and United States-Based Ekwenche Research Institute on political and armed state actor and armed non-state actor ethno-religious persecution of defenseless Igbo Land South-East Judeo-Christians and wanton attacks on their territories and properties using structural, cultural and physical violence. The first part of the Report released this Sunday, August 9, 2026, in Enugu-Nigeria, was published in our morning edition.

Our Researchers and Investigators further gathered that the ongoing secret terrorism trials are ethno-religously biased and conducted in total disregard to the fundamental provisions of the Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution and related provisions in the country’s acceded Human Rights and Humanitarian Treaty Laws. The Constitutional provisions in gross breach include Sections 33 (right to life), 34 (right to dignity of human person and freedom from torture), 35 (right to personal liberty), 36 (right to fair hearing and fair trial), 38 (right to freedom of worship, conscience and thought) and 42 (right to freedom from discrimination on the grounds of religion and ethnicity). Apart from the fact that the victims have permanently been denied access to their families, lawyers and doctors for more than five years to ten years, they have also never been tried tried in open court or allowed to choose lawyers of their own choice and freedom to prepare for their own defense. No credible and detailed investigations involing them also took place.

The most shocking, according to independent attorneys observing the flawed trials by proxy, was that Nigerian Government solely drafted prosecuting attorneys and defence attorneys and totally excluded independent attorneys from making appearances for the flawed trial victims. Shocking details were independently obtained by our Researchers and Investigators regarding constant court-room harassments and bashings faced by victims facing the flawed trials especially in the hands of SSS Legal Department, officials of the Federal Ministry of Justice and their prosecuting attorneys, the drafted trial court judges, the drafted security personnel and “defense attorneys” drated from Nigerian Government’s owned Legal Aid Council, drafted to “defend” the victims facing the flawed trials. Such joint secret court-room harassments and bashings are handed down to the victims whenever such victims dare to plead not guilty. There are also no presentation of witnesses and circumstantial evidence by prosecutors especially in cases involving the abducted South-East Judeo-Christian civilians controversially accused of terrorism by being “IPOB members or supporters”. Further found was the fact that the Igbo Land abducted victims facing such flawed trials are given zero opportunities to get independent defense attorneys represent them or given adequate opportunities to prepare for their defense, assemble and present their own witnesses.

As if these flawed processes were not enough, the victims facing such flawed trials are deceitfully told to plead guilty and get freed or clemencies, only for those that pleaded guilty to be randomely sentenced to jail terms ranging from life jails to 20 years for being IPOB members or supporters. With such victims having been permanently disconnected from their families, lawyers and doctors, they are secretly bundled from one Northen security dungeon to another to serve their so called “jail terms”, still without access to their families, lawyers and doctors from the time of their arrest or abduction since five years till date. The wherabouts of those “jailed victims” and others “in awaiting trial” have remained unaccounted for, to the extent that no South-East Family or independent attorney has been able to locate or trace any till date. In other words, those undergoing flawed terrorism trials and those serving “jailed terms”, abducted from Igbo Land South-East since 2015 and 2021 are most unlikely to return to their families now or in future.

Analyzing Recent Human Rights Watch Report: The Human Rights Watch, USA, in its Special Report of Wednesday July 22, 2026, titled: “Nigerian Terrorism (Boko Haram) Trials Ineffective, Flawed”. The Report observed: “The Nigerian authorities’ prosecution of Boko Haram suspects does not advance justice for serious international crimes, as the cases continue to target primarily low-level suspects and raise significant fair-trial concerns”. That “Trials were conducted without witnesses or circumstantial evidence…and legal defense provided by the government appeared inadequate”. That “Nigerian authorities should ensure that all terrorism trials (especially against the abducted South-Eastern civilians) comply with international fair trial and due process standards, including basing prosecutions on credible and sufficient evidence, and guaranteeing adequate time and facilities to prepare a defense”. Human Rights Watch also observed 10 cases involving the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a separatist movement in southeast Nigeria… In all cases Human Rights Watch observed, prosecutors did not present witnesses or circumstantial evidence to substantiate the alleged charges, which were in some cases ambiguous

Background Of HRW Findings: The Human Rights Watch (HRW) had found that “recent phases of terrorism trials were held at the Federal High Court in Abuja from April 8 to 11 and June 15 to 18, with 10 judges hearing cases simultaneously in separate courtrooms. Human Rights Watch observed proceedings in five of these courtrooms on April 9 and 10 and June 17 and 18, monitored reporting on the trials, and interviewed a government official involved in the proceedings. Human Rights Watch also wrote to relevant government institutions involved in the trials, including the Federal Ministry of Justice and the Legal Aid Council of Nigeria, seeking responses to questions and concerns about the trials. The Legal Aid Council of Nigeria and the director of public prosecution, on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Justice, have responded According to media reports, during the 4 days of trial hearings in April, the judges found 386 defendants guilty of terrorism-related crimes, including participation in Boko Haram attacks on civilians, and ordered sentences ranging from 5 years to life in prison. The court adjourned 112 other cases until June. During the June proceedings, the court heard cases involving 490 defendants on the first day and an additional 84 on the second day, according to media reports. and lacking crucial information like the specific date and details of the alleged offense.” Link: https://www.eurasiareview.com/23072026-nigeria-boko-haram-trials-ineffective-flawed-hrw-says/

Names Of Abducted Igbo Judeo-Christians In WAWA Cantonment Jailed Outside Due Process: According to findings from our Researchers and Investigators, the following six abducted Igbo South-East Judeo-Christian civilians who survived harvests of custodial deaths inside the WAWA Military Cantonment in faraway Niger State were labeled “members of IPOB” and jailed in 2024 in secret trials without access to their families and lawyers of their own and outside witnesses and circumstantial evidence as well as open and fair trial and fair-hearing. They included: David Ogbonna, Emmanuel Ariwuzo, Uchenna Nwaoha, Richard Ngonadi, Vincent Emeka Ibe and Victor Chidi.

Names Of Nine Igbo Victims Recently (2026) Jailed Or Forced To Admit Guilty Outside The Law: According to Human Rights attorneys who spoke to Intersociety, at least eight Igbo Land Judeo-Christian abductees bundled to WAWA Military Cantonment in faraway Niger State in North-Central Nigeria since 2021 were recently (June 2026) tried under controversial circumstances including being coerced to plead “guilty”.

They included: Chidiebere Luke Echefu detained since 2021 in SSS pleaded not guilty, Chidiebere Christian Ugwu detained 2024 in SSS pleaded not guilty, Nnabuike Romanus Erikeigwe detained 2025 pleaded not guilty but was coercively recorded as having pleaded guilty and was sentenced 20 years, Ferdinand Uchenna Ede detained 2022, forced to plead guilty and sentenced 20 years, Azoribe Samuel Onu, detained since 2023 and forced to plead guilty, Ndukwe Kalu Iroha, detained since 2024 and forced to plead guilty, Okolo Godwin Ejiofor detained since 2024 and forced to plead guilty and Abel Onyekachi Michael, mentally and physically tortured and has a psychiatric case and forced to plead guilty. He is from Udenu Local Government Area of Enugu and jailed Life imprisonment; and 9. Miss Elizabeth Ozioma Onyeaka. She was abducted in Nsugbe near Onitsha by an Army patrol team, disappeared and bundled to WAWA Military Cantonment and is presently standing flawed trial, after having been seized outside her family and lawyer’s knowledge for more than five years.

List Of Christians Abducted In Igbo Land And Killed In Custody At WAWA Military Cantonment In 2024:

They included: Philip Uchenna, Chidiebere Dennis, Ekene Williams, Uchenna Gideon, Ekene Peter, Chinemezue, Zebrom, Chukwuemeka, Obioma and Ogechi.

Identities Of Barr Awoke Colleagues Abducted At Lokoja And Disappeared At WAWA Cantonment:

Recall that Barr Awoke Pius, an Abakiliki based legal practitioner and eight others returning with him from Abuja to the East using a commercial vehicle were abducted by SSS operatives in July 2021 along the Murtala Muhammed Bridge in Lokoja, Niger State. They were ambushed after attending a Court session in Abuja involving Nnamdi Kanu matter; and bundled to WAWA Military Cantonment in faraway Niger State from the SSS Headquarters and detained sub-humanly for three years (July 2021 to July 2024). Upon his release in July 2024 following several outcries from the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), among others, Barr Awoke David granted a media interview, disclosing that “many Igbo civilian detainees abducted from the East have died inside WAWA Military Cantonment” and that “eight persons arrested with him and bundled to WAWA Military Cantonment “have never been located alive”. He gave their names as: “Fortune Okezie, Chinedu Nwoba, Eze Joseph, David Ogbonnaya, Ajah Joseph, Igwe Johnson, Kenneth Ojima and Wisdom Ezika Nwambana; and that only Citizen Chinonso Onyeibe, a Final Year Engineering Student of the Ebonyi State University came out with him alive; bearing scars and signs of mental and physical torture.

34 Igbo Land Abducted Judeo-Christians Dumped To Die At WAWA Cantonment As At End Of 2024:

They included: Enyinna Edom, Chidiebere Roland, Joseph Obenyi, Okezie Fortune, Ojuma Kenneth, Ezike Wisdom, Okafor Joseph, Ajah Joseph Ogbonnaya, David Ogbonnaya, Ugochukwu Okafor, Igwe Joseph, Baba Mufu, Nathaniel Odumbe, Chidi Victor Obi, Dominic Wave, Kufer Sandy, Nduka Idika, Chinedu Nwoba, Ozoemena Nwokoye, Napoleon Bassey Ikpi, Chimezie Nwogu, Chimezie Ayama, Uchenna Ogaraba, Uchenna Mbeta, God’s Power Amen, Asukwo Emmanuel, Chinonoso Obinali, Raphael, Ikechukwu, Philip, Sixstus,Basil, Success and Chigbo-Ogu.

30 Igbo Land Abducted Judeo-Christians Bundled To WAWA By Military And SSS As “IPOB Members”:

Discovered by our Researchers and Investigators through Human Rights Attorneys conversant with ongoing persecution of Igbo Land Judeo-Christians using “IPOB/ESN Membership” as a pretext and done outside due process, was a declassified transfer letter from the Nigerian Army to the SSS authorities in Abuja, dated March 23, 2022. The declassified letter was titled: “Transfer of Boko Haram and IPOB Terrorist Suspects to the Nigerian Army”. Names Of 20 Igbo Land abducted Judeo-Christians In The Declassified Inter-Agency Transfer List: Igwe Johnson Dike, Odo John Adoga, Sunday Chizoba Cornelius, Ndubusi Emmanuel Nweke, Arinze Ifeanyi Thomas, Ikechukwu Chukwu Nwaite, Calista Ogochukwu Ifedi (female) and Sunday Ifedi. The husband and her wife were abducted by SSS in Enugu on Nov 23, 2021, labeled “IPOB Members” and bundled to SSS Headquarters in Abuja and held incommunicado for four months and secretly transferred to WAWA Military Cantonment in faraway Niger State in 2022. The wife, Calista Ogochukwu Ifedi, accused of “selling food to IPOB Members in custody” and was killed in 2025 at WAWA Military Cantonment. Advocacy pressures from several rights groups including Amnesty International later forced the Nigerian authorities to free her Husband, Sunday Ifedi in December 2025 after held incommunicado for three years amidst torture, starvation and denial of medical treatment at SSS Headquarters and WAWA Military Cantonment.

Also among the 30 in the list of Igbo Land Judeo-Christian abductees in the declassified inter-agency transfer list are: Joy Godwin (Idara Gold), Paul Okechukwu, Chuchukwu Dim, Ifesinashi Raphael Chinaka, Chidiebere Luke Echefu, Malachy Nwokwu, Henry Ikechukwu, Gift Nwali, Uchechukwu Francis, Ebuka, Obinna Okpara and Chibuike Chinonye. In another inter-agency secret transfer list, also obtained by our Researchers and Investigators in October 2024; dated February 21, 2023 and referenced: “List of Terrorist Suspects Forwarded for Trial in WAWA Military Holding Facility”, the following Igbo Land abducted Judeo-Christians were included and labeled “IPOB Terrorist Suspects”: I. Ubah, U. Okoronkwo, I. M. Nduka, N.A. Okenna, Ike Basiya, Frank Okpo, N.D. Okorie, Emelie U. Ibe, Success Johnson, Conference Ludlaw and John O. Orji. Till date (January 2021-July 2026), most, if not the names highlighted above are still denied access to their families, whether they are dead or have survived.

Our Star Reference: NIGERIA: OCEAN OF INNOCENT BLOOD FLOWING IN THE EAST

https://intersociety-ng.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/NIGERIA-OCEAN-OF-INNOCENT-BLOOD-FLOWING-IN-THE-EAST-oringinal_11zon.pdf (Enugu Nigeria: December 2024)

Military’s Admission Of Mass Killings And Abductions In Igbo Land South-East Using “IPOB” As A Pretext: The Nigerian Military, represented by the Defense Headquarters are found to have technically and circumstantially admitted carrying out mass killings and abductions using “IPOB/ESN Terrorism” as a pretext, especially between January 2021 and December 2025; and have been continued into the first seven months (Jan-July 2026) of 2026. According to reports of the Nigerian Defense Headquarters, tracked and archived by our Researchers and Investigators, the Nigerian Military in its Report of June 27, 2024 (“shallow graves in South-East”), reported that “troops of Operation Udoka killed 180 IPOB/ESN members and combatants, arrested 354 IPOB/ESN criminals…”. In another Report released in September 2024, the Defense Headquarters claimed that: “troops of Operation Udoka Killed 180 IPOB combatants and arrested and detained 300 others between July and August 2024…”.

General analysis of Defense Headquarters’ reports further indicated that troops of Nigerian Military’s Operation Udoka in South-East killed not less than “1,500 IPOB members” outside the law and due process in 20 months of Jan 2023 and August 2024, arrested and detained at least 1,261 others”. The Nigerian Defense Headquarters also announced the arrest and detention of 1,545 persons in the South-South and killing of 644 (mainly Igbo Judeo-Christian others) under the same 20 months of January 2023 to end of August 2024; with estimated 800 most likely to be citizens of Igbo Judeo-Christian origin.

Sadly, our Researchers and Investigators monitored and observed that such arrests and detention by the Military are ultra vires, extra jus, extrajudicial and extralegal-having been conducted outside the constitutionally required inter-agency transfer of the arrested citizens to Nigeria Police Force; thereby fueling fears of massive extrajudicial killings arising from excessive use of force, military brutalities, jungle justice and ethno-religious profiling. Further discovered was the fact that there are no verifiable official records showing that those arrested were released to their families; or transferred to the Police for proper investigations or discharged and acquitted in the end. Under Nigeria’s general body of criminal laws and their procedures, Nigerian Military do not have general police powers over civilians or police officers, but can arrest and hand over the arrested citizens to the police immediately. According to a recent Abuja Federal High Court judgment, military cannot arrest, detain, investigate and prosecute civilians in Nigeria.

(2)Our General Research Findings Under State Actor Conspiracy: Political And Armed State Actors’ Cultural Violence Of Turning Multiplicity Of Violent Crimes In Igbo Land South-East Into “IPOB/ESN Insurgency/Terrorism”: Our Researchers and Investigators made findings indicating that for purposes of advancement of ‘Cultural Violence in the Nigerian Security Forces (NSFs) ongoing ‘internal security operations’ in Eastern Nigeria, populated by more than 95% Judeo-Christians and attendant armed state actor mass killings, abductions and disappearances; the multiplicity of violent crimes bedevilling the Region have been deliberately and systematically unified and turned into “IPOB/ESN Insurgency/Terrorism in South-East”. This is to the extent that they have been dangerously used as a pretext to widen and escalate the atrocious conducts of the drafted security forces, rooted in Structural and Physical Violence including mass killings, abductions and disappearances as well as cover-ups and protection of Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and their terror activities in the Region, particularly in Igbo Land South-East.

In our 280-Page Our Mother Report of December 22, 2024 (OCEAN OF INNOCENT BLOOD FLOWING IN EASTERN NIGERIA), Research and Investigative findings were made showing that South-East and its neighbouring South-South have been bedevilled by multiplicity of violent crimes, majorly divided into armed state actor atrocity-crimes or conduct atrocities and armed non-state actor violent crimes. The Intersociety Research Report further found that other than traditional street violent crimes and a handful of sub-national political and vigilante violent crimes and police custodial and roadblock brutalities, other violent crimes bedevilling the Region of the Igbo Land South-East are found to have been externally and internally planted by national and sub-national political class.

While the external political class especially under Buhari Administration (2015-May 2023) are found to have desperately vowed to strangulate and conquer the Old Eastern Nigeria including South-East and South-South on the ground of radical religion (State and Nomadic Jihadism); the planted internal political class were found to have desperately needed political offices, forcing them to do the desperate and conquest biddings of their federal political paymasters and patrons. Mishandling or poor handling by political state actors and armed state actors, of ‘IPOB Self-Determination Civil Street Protests’ also escalated and worsened the security situation in the Old Eastern Region particularly the South-East.

Apart from violent clampdowns and crackdowns that followed, especially between August 2015 and December 2019, including mass abductions, disappearances and open and secret killings; the planted internal political class were found to have been contracted by their national political paymasters and patrons to counterfeit Self-Determination agitation and agitators-particularly after the December 2020 formation of “the Eastern Security Network” by the mainstream Pro Biafra Group, resulting in the formation of “Ebubeagu Counter Security Network” or “Vigilante Group” and numerous groups of ‘Counter Biafra Agitators’. That was also the beginning of flooding of the South-East and South-South with battalions of unprofessional military and crack police officers and personnel and their war-grade arms and ammunitions, dating back to July 30, 2015. Under the cover and protection of the drafted unprofessional security forces, jihadist groups led by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen are also found to have been allowed to make incursions into the South-East and South-South forests, bushes and farmlands, generally since 2016.

Below is the list of over 40 externally planted violent crimes bedevilling the Igbo Land South-East since 2015 and their armed 14 group-perpetrators involved:

(1) Armed State Actor Violent Crimes Against South-East Civilians: Military conduct-atrocities including indiscrimination house invasions, war-jet bombing of civilian homes and attendant human and property casualties, mass killings, abductions, disappearances, extrajudicial and other unlawful killings or executions; and small arms-based wanton destruction of civilian houses and other properties, unlawful killings and abductions involving protection of oil and other solid mineral facilities; among others. SSS conduct-atrocities: including indiscriminate arrests, abductions and tortuous and other unlawful detention and possible custodial killings. Police Crack Squads’ conduct-atrocities: including indiscrimination house invasions, mass killings, abductions, disappearances, extrajudicial and other unlawful killings or executions; and wanton destruction of civilian houses and other properties, among others; same goes for “Joint Security Taskforces (JTFs)”. Contrary to wide powers, duties and responsibilities granted to the Nigeria Police Force by the country’s body of criminal, civil and procedural laws, officers and personnel of the Force in the South-East are found to have crudely and unprofessionally joined the military in their crude and unprofessional use of force, owing to their constitutional limitations in matters of general procession of members of the civilian population in civil and criminal matters involving them. The above cowardly and crude act of the Police officers and personnel is found to have been rooted in exhibition of inter-agency false gallantry and warding off of inter-agency inferiority complex.

(2) Externally Planted Armed Non-State Actor Violent Crimes In The South-East: Ebubeagu Counter South-East Security Network: Their violent criminal activities including mass murders, aggravated assaults and attempted murders, secret killings, abductions, disappearances, political brigandage/terrorism, sexual harassment and violence, wanton destruction of civilian properties, among others. Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and allied jihadists: Their jihadist terror attacks including systematic open killings and secret killings arising from ambushes and abductions, kidnappings-for-ransom, kidnappings-for-sexual pleasure, kidnappings-for-Islamic conversion, property looting and pillaging, wanton destruction of properties, sexual violence including abominable opposite and same-sex rape, infliction of fears and terror on defenceless South-East Judeo-Christian population, among others. There are also externally and internally procured

Externally and Internally Procured Niger Delta Islamic jihadist conquest mercenaries: They are investigated and circumstantially found to have belonged to ex Niger Delta militancy leaders flooding the South-East forests and other strategic locations and engaging in series of subversive and counterfeit violent activities; with intent to criminalize self-determination activities and heaped the blames on self-determination agitators; with intent to terrorize and worsen the externally planted insecurity and other man-made unsafe conditions in Igbo Land South-East. Recruited Armed Political Mercenaries from South-South: Their heinous crimes including targeted and hit-and-run violent crimes using creeks and waterlines-for deadly political reasons; with intent to create panics and confusions and heap the blame same on wrong parties including “IPOB/ESN”. Subversive and False-Flagged Operations: secretly coordinated by subversive elements within the country’s special security operatives, with intent to impersonate, counterfeit and criminalize the activities of the descent entities or persons.

There are also: Renegades from Pro Biafra Groups: They are dropped-out members of the armed wing of the mainstream Pro Biafra movement and their nefarious conducts including seizing weapons allocated to them or gaining access to new ones with which they have become outlaws and engaged in violent crimes especially kidnap-for-ransom and ritualism, etc. Externally Planted Counterfeit Biafra Agitators: They include those bought-over and armed by internally planted political malicious class and their external patrons or paymasters and assigned to violently counterfeit the activities of the mainstream Pro Biafra groups including mass killings and abductions; with intent to counterfeit and criminalize the mainstream groups and apportion culpability or heap blames on them. Armed State Actor-protected armed Controversial Biafra Agitators: Their violent criminal activities in the South-East including snatching of exotic cars and kidnaping-for-ransom, among others; perpetrated within the prime eyes of security agencies. Armed Mainstream Pro Biafra Agitators-2021-2022: Their unlawful criminalities including killing or injuring of defenceless civilians during exchanges of gunfire with security forces or targeted attacks on some civilian citizens falsely or rightly accused of “giving or leaking information” to conventional security agencies and revenge attacks against conventional security agencies and their facilities especially between 2021 and 2022.

Below is the list of more than 25 traditional street violent crimes not included in the list, indicating that the 40 externally planted violent crimes and their 14 group-perpetrators in the South-East did not include Traditional Street Violent Crimes, numbering more than 25 and perpetrated by hundreds of armed group-perpetrators or individual violent crimes’ syndicates or entities. In the list include: armed robbery, car-jacking, premeditated homicide, aggravated assault, attempted murder, cultism, arms trafficking, trafficking in persons, arson, vandalism, burglary, house-breaking, violent property grabbling, rape and other violent sexual assaults, kidnapping-for-ransom, ritualism, intra and inter-communal violence, ritualism including organ harvesting, violent phone snatching, violent internet fraud, violent car snatching, among others.

(3) Our General Research Findings Under State Actor Complicity And Conspiracy: Our Findings have further indicated that Igbo Land South-East is injuriously bleeding under the present South-East Sub-National Governments, particularly territories, citizens and properties under governance eyes of those in charge of Enugu, Imo, Ebonyi and Anambra. Conspiratorially, military, police and intelligence establishments stationed in the Region including their officers, personnel and high commands have chronically turned blind eyes and done nothing while the Igbo Land South-East bleeds and is placed in a detonative jihadist time-bomb by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and their allies; to the extent that the time-bomb is steadily and dangerously ticking across major nooks and crannies of the Region; and has increasingly manifested and still manifests capability of detonating and enveloping the Region in no distant time. As a matter of fact, Igbo Land South-East and South-South Regions are under Raging Nomadic Jihadism.

Findings made showed that the Igbo Land South-East has recorded annual average of 700 Judeo-Christian deaths since the Ukpabi-Nimbo Jihadist Fulani massacre of April 2016 in Enugu State; killing at least 48 rural Christians. In other words, no fewer than 7000 Igbo Land South-East Judeo-Christian lives have been lost in the hands of Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen alone in past ten years of April 2016 to July 2026; out of which estimated 70% involved secret killings such as deaths arising from ambushes and abductions targeted at Igbo Land South-East travellers within and outside the South-East. The remaining 30% deaths are estimated to have been recorded from open attacks and killings involving jihadist invasion of Igbo homes, farmlands and other settlements. Our Researchers and Investigators also estimated that from April 2016 to December 2024, “6,500 Igbo Land Judeo-Christians were killed by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and allied others in Igbo parts of South-East and South-South-between April 2016 and December 2024”.

Further findings indicated that there had been records of sporadic Fulani Herdsmen incursions and attacks across the South-East Region before the April 2016 Ukpabi-Nimbo Jihadist Herdsmen attack. Under the conspiracy and protection of the country’s security forces, Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen incursions and attacks across the Eastern Rainforests were independently recorded to have started in late 2015; recording 13 occupied locations as at August 2015; from where the number rose to estimated 139 occupied locations in August 2019; 350-400 in 2020; and over 800 as of end of July 2026.

The increase in the number of these Fulani settlements and occupations was as a result of Federal Government of Nigeria’s funded and enforced country-wide “Fulani Herdsmen settlement and artificial community policy including grants of billions of naira to each of the willing South-East and South-South States to create new Fulani RUGA and related Settlements by seizing and ceding communal Igbo lands. With a case-study of Benue, Plateau, Taraba and Southern Kaduna, these settlements and occupations have been converted to bases for Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen widespread attacks on Christian areas and communities and have become the root cause of the ongoing Nomadic Jihadism across Nigeria.

Our Researchers and Investigators have made findings showing that Abductions, Disappearances and Deaths arising from ‘secret jihadist attacks’ (70% of the total jihadist attacks) in Igbo Land have arisen from Islamic Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen ambushes and abductions targeted at Igbo Land Judeo-Christian travellers using the following seven jihadist Fulani Herdsmen routes, locations and occupations: 1. “Fulani Invaded and Occupied or Ceded or Procured Igbo Communal Forests, 2. Fulani Invaded and Occupied or Ceded or Procured Igbo Land Communal Bushes, 3. Fulani Invaded and Occupied or Ceded or Procured Igbo Land Communal Farmland Settlements, 4. Fulani Invaded and Occupied or Ceded or Procured Igbo Land Forests belonging to Ancient Igbo Deities or Oracles, 5. Fulani Invaded and Occupied Non-Igbo Forests, Bushes and Farm Settlements located at Igbo Boundary Areas with Others, 6. Vicinities and areas or communities close to major Military and Police Formations located in the Region-including the Army/Navy/Air Force formations in places like in Owerri, Owerre-Nta, Ogbaru, Oguta, Ohafia, Asaba, Amansea, Abakiliki, Enugu, Awkunanaw and their neighboring Elele, Asaba, Agbor, Ogoja, among others; 7. Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen Occupied Forests and Bushes located within the South-East neighbors and outside others including in Edo, Ondo, Ogun, Kaduna, Kogi, Nasarawa, Benue-Taraba routes, Kaduna-Abuja routes and Lagos-Abuja routes, etc., where traveler-South-Easterners are waylaid, abducted and ransomed, or abducted and killed or disappeared untraced.

Saddest, Most Shocking And Disappointing: It is the finding of our Researchers and Investigators that there are maddening political state actors and armed state actors’ conspiracy and complicity in the ongoing Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen terror in Igbo Land South-East and Igbo parts of the South-South. There are Structural Violence, Physical Violence and Cultural Violence dimensions in the highlighted dastardly roles of these state actors. Such state actor conspiracy and complicity are recklessly perpetrated using false denials, suppression of facts, false labelling, ethno-religious profiling, mass criminalization, transfer of criminal responsibility, protection of the criminal parties, shifting of criminal liability from criminal parties to wrong parties, doctored intelligence and concocted and inconclusive investigations and cover-ups, etc.

In Criminology and Security Studies, political state actors and armed state actors’ constant denial of criminal responsibility involving criminal parties such as Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and their terror attacks in Igbo Land South-East Nigeria and apportionment or shifting of blames or criminal responsibility to wrong parties, whether criminal entities or the innocent, is very dangerous and has capacity to deepen and escalate such heinous crimes; to the extent that while Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen remain untracked and intensifying and saturating their jihadist terror activities at their targets, political state actors and armed state actors are busy living in perpetual denials and apportionment of blames to the wrong or innocent parties. According to our Researchers and Investigators, these have become deliberate policies or policy directions of the Igbo Land Sub-National Governments and stationed security forces especially in Enugu, Anambra, Imo and Ebonyi States.

In Anambra, Prof Chukwuma Soludo led Government has consistently and falsely denied the presence and terror of the Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and their secret terror in Anambra State; yet the State Government under him was publicly named in 2025 as one of the South-East States involved in multibillion deal with Federal Government of Nigeria to cede large expanse of communal land for permanent Fulani Settlements across the State. The Governor had also in 2025 falsely declared that “there are no Fulani Herdsmen kidnappers anywhere in the South-East forests except Christian kidnappers. In 2024, the State Government refused to attend to a distress call following abduction and raping by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen of a couple (husband and wife) inside Ukwulu Forest. The State Government reportedly got angry and refused to act because the victims did not falsely blame “IPOB or Eastern Security Network” for their ordeal. Evidently, on Sunday, August 1, 2026, the Anambra State Police Command announced the rare arrest of two Anambra forest-based jihadist kidnappers: Dauda Mohamad and Umar Ali who abducted an Anambra victim on June 26, 2026 at Devine Heritage Lodge, Ukwulu in Dunukofia Local Government Area of the State. The Jihadist Kidnappers also named other members identified as “Usman and Gongola”.

Eha-Amufu And Ezeagu In Enugu State As A Case-Study: Such false denials, protection of the criminal parties (Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen) and cover-ups have continued to deepen and escalate in Enugu State where the Government of Enugu State and stationed military and police establishments and their authorities especially the Enugu State Police Command and 82 Division of the Nigerian Army are grossly involved by using government-owned and muzzled independent media organizations to suppress facts, cover up and deny Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen terror across the State particularly in Eha-Amufu part of Isi-Uzo Local Government Area. Our Report of Nov 10, 2025 statistically and graphically found that devastations caused by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen attacks from neighbouring Benue State have turned some villages into ghost towns, uprooted and displaced thousands, killed more than 117 local Christian worshippers including more than eight buried in one church compound alone; and sacked sacred places of worship numbering at least 14 including twelve Anglican church and two Catholic church parishes since March 2021. Link:https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/news/359300/the-untold-story-of-shocking-discoveries-in-enugu.html.

According to eyewitnesses and survivors interviewed by Intersociety, the Government of Enugu State Government rather than coming to their rescue, brutally responded to the attacks by violently cracking down on the youths of the area including youth leaders of the affected churches for voicing out-resulting in mass arrests and weeks of unlawful detention using police crack squads and military personnel drafted from 82 Division of Nigerian Army, Enugu and Enugu State Police Command; during which several pictorial and video evidence linking Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen attackers and their attacks were destroyed, so as to cover-up the jihadist attacks and erase traces. The matter was also twisted and the arrested victims accused of “kidnapping, arson, armed robbery, vandalism and terrorism”.

Report also filtered in from Inoyi-Affa in Udi Local Government Area of Enugu State that masked gunmen armed with AK-47s and machetes stormed the St Joseph Catholic Church on Sunday, August 2, 2026 and abducted the officiating Seminarian, the Catechist and another worshipper and disappeared with them into the nearby bush and trekked a long distance before releasing the Catechist and disappeared with the Seminarian and the other worshipper (Emmanuel). Eyewitnesses including the freed Catechist said they are suspected Fulani Jihadists who have been terrorizing the area since recent times. Several communities of Nsukka, Uzo Uwani and Nkanu East have also been affected and devastated by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen terror activities in recent years and rarely reported in the media-owing to Government and security forces’ censorship and highhandedness.

In Ezeagu Local Government Area, similar state actor cover-ups, suppression of facts, transfer or shifting of criminal responsibility (blaming it on “IPOB/ESN” or “unknown gunmen/hoodlums”), protection of the criminal parties (Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen), harassment and intimidation of the attacked communities; and false labelling and ethno-religious profiling of their indigenes-have enveloped various communities in the area particularly Communities of Umuaji Imezi-Owa, Imezi-Owa, Umuagba-Owa, Ezema-Owa, Ogwumike-Owa, Aguobu-Owa, Oha Ndiagu, among others. Our Researchers and Investigators have since 2024 gathered that various communities in Ezeagu have been laid under siege by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and their patrons since 2010.

The Ezeagu Fulani Jihadists also recruited some local “retreatists” as their informants and agents or partners in the orgy of jihadist kidnappings-for-ransom, among other heinous crimes ravaging the area. Sadly, despite several outcries by leaders and stakeholders of the affected communities for Government of Enugu State and stationed security forces to intervene and frontally address the jihadist Fulani Herdsmen terror, the siege has not only continued but worsened and escalated since then. The partisanship and discriminatory approaches to the jihadist terror by Government of Enugu State and stationed security forces further deteriorated on July 16, 2026 when the State Government announced suspension of three Traditional Rulers and four Community Presidents-General in the area for “security breaches”.

The affected Traditional Rulers included: lgwe C. Ozoigbokwe of Umuaji-Imezi Owa Autonomous Community, Igwe Leo Nechi of Imezi Owa Autonomous Community and lgwe Benedict Adinde of Umuagba Autonomous Community; while the four Presidents-General included: Samson Ike of Umuagba Owa Town Union, Remigus Ozoanya of Ezema Owa Town Union, Peter Igwebuike of Imezi Owa Town Union and Chief Lazarus Ejim of Ogwumike Owa Town Union. Though the Government of Enugu State was silent on claims of “security breaches” but findings from our Researchers and Investigators showed that the affected traditional community leaders were likely to have been suspended for voicing out on severally against Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen terror in their communities, dating back to 2010. Evidently, according to Intersociety’s collected data, Ezeagu Local Government Area has been under siege by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and their terror attacks since 2010-resulting in the loss of hundreds of lives and properties and abduction and ransom or disappearance of hundreds of others including clergies of Catholic, Anglican and Pentecostal churches. Displacement of many villagers and destruction of their ancestral farmlands including the popular ‘Eke Abonuzu Cassava Market’ and occupation of the area’s ancient Ajali Spring Water River also occurred.

The situation got compounded and deteriorated following brazen complicity and partisanship of the Enugu State Police Command and Enugu 82 Division of the Nigerian Army and Government of the State, to the extent the named political state actors and stationed armed state actors have gone ahead to twist the jihadist terror attacks by blaming them on leaders and indigenes of the affected communities leading to recent war-grade military attacks on civilian homes and abduction of dozens of their defenseless indigenes as well as recent crackdown on key leaders of the affected communities. It is recalled that the Intersociety field researchers and investigators twice went to the area in November 2025 and May 2026, producing detailed investigative Reports on May 19, 2026 (https://intersociety-ng.org/report-ezeagu-enugu-army-invasion-civilian-house-burnings-and-allied-atrocities/) and December 16, 2025 (https://intersociety-ng.org/over-20-dens-of-jihadist-fulani-terror-discovered-in-communities-of-ezeagu-in-enugu-state/).

Over 25 Igbo Communities Under Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen Siege Since January 2026: By our recently collected statistics, more than twenty-five Igbo Land Judeo-Christian Communities have been under Jihadist Fulani Herdsman siege and attacks since January 2026, partly or substantially. These are rarely reported by mainstream media except some social media and eyewitnesses accounts. As part of their broad policy of cover-ups, false denials, transfer of criminal responsibility, ethno-religious profiling and false labeling, the Governors of respective South-East States and stationed security establishments and their authorities as well as government-owned and muzzled or censored independent media are found to have rarely reported such jihadist attacks. The political state actors and armed state actors are also found to have engaged in sponsoring counter social media outfits to deny such reports or blame such attacks on wrong or uninvolved parties (especially “IPOB/ESN” or “unknown gunmen/hoodlums”). The armed state actors in Igbo Land South-East have also collapsed processes of credible intelligence gathering and detailed and conclusive criminal investigations by recklessly and dangerously relying on “hasty and hearsay conclusions”, false labeling, ethno-religious profiling, mass and class criminalization and distorted, concocted and doctored intelligence or criminal investigation outcomes. Among the partly or substantially affected twenty-five Igbo South-East communities found to have been experiencing Jihadist Fulani attacks such as abductions, disappearances, secret killings, armed robberies, sexual violence, among others are several communities of Ezeagu in Enugu; some parts of Ukwulu, Ogidi, Agulu and Ogbaru communities in Anambra; some communities of Umuahia North and Umuahia South including Ubakala and Ohuhu in Abia; some parts of communities of Iheagwa, Eziobodo, Obinze, Naze, Nekede, Obibiezena and Irete in Owerri and its environs in Imo where abduction of no fewer than a dozen students, travelers and indigenous farmers and killing of scores recently occurred. Others are some communities of Awgu and Isi-Uzo in Enugu State including Eha-Amufu and Mgbuji; some communities of Uzo-Uwani including Ogurugu, Igga, Nimbo and Adani; some communities of Nkanu East and West including Akpawfu and Mburubu; some communities of Oguta including Agwa and Izombe; and some communities of Ohafia including Isiugwu, Amangwu and Akanu; some communities of Ohaji-Egbema; and some communities of Udi including Affa, among others. In neighboring Igbo-Delta State, Ellah and Umuagwu communities are also affected.

Enugu State Govt., Police, Army Watched Idly As Fulani Jihadists Sacked 16 Villages In Isi-Uzo: Not less than sixteen Trado-Judo-Christian villages in Isi-Uzo Local Government Area of Enugu State have been sacked by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen in the past four years or since 2022. This is to the extent that Government of Enugu State and stationed military and police establishments and their authorities have turned blind eyes, looking for ways to blame such jihadist terror on “IPOB/ESN”. This was exclusively disclosed by a popular social media and religious activist, Evangelist Ebube Joseph who recently visited one of the Internally Displaced Persons’ camps in the area-where he raised serious concerns over the humanitarian crisis facing the internally displaced persons in the area, numbering hundreds. According to him, “attacks by Fulani Herdsmen have forced residents of 16 communities or villages to flee their homes and displaced in the past four years (since 2022) without homes, businesses and other means of livelihood, all destroyed by Fulani Herdsmen in four years”. Evangelist Ebube Joseph also conducted live interviews with some of the displaced persons, disclosing that only about 5% of the displaced persons were in the IDP camp while most of others scattered in different parts of Enugu and beyond. He accused the Government of Enugu State of doing little or nothing to ensure their security, safety and welfare, and freedom of religion or beliefs, contrary to Sections 14 (2b) and 38 of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution. He also shared verified pictures and video clips from the camp. His encounter was published in a number of online media platforms including Akelicious Online Report of July 31, 2026 (https://www.akelicious.net/16-villages-sacked-by-fulani-herdsmen-in-enugu-state/). Here is also the Facebook link to the video, exclusively shared by Evangelist Ebube: https://www.facebook.com/100085347687482/posts/1003021292552784/?rdid=LFWFtF3FGTdPpWSN#

No Traces Of State Records Of Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen Terror In South-East In Past 10 Years: Despite several independent reports or findings regarding the terror activities of Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen across the Igbo Land South-East since 2016 or in past ten years, including mass killings and abductions resulting in no fewer than 7000 Igbo Judeo-Christian deaths and thousands of abducted and possibly disappeared others; there have been no traces of State actor records documenting or evidencing such attacks including number of those attacked, where, when, why and how they were attacked and identities of those that attacked them and how many of the attackers (if any) have been tracked, arrested, tried and convicted and compensation and rehabilitation measures taken to restore the victims back to their former normal ethno-religious lifestyles. Instead, such grisly and egregious attacks have officially been debunked when rarely published in the mainstream media. In most cases, mainstream media reporters are censored from reporting them. The political and armed state actors are also found to have resorted to use of propaganda, harassment and intimidation to scare independent media reporters away and intimidate them and researchers into not reporting them.

Where they are rarely reported in social media and blogs, they are instantly tagged “fake news” or falsely labeled as “the handiwork of IPOB/ESN or unknown gunmen or hoodlums or Christian kidnappers”. Local and international research and investigative bodies are found to have often been labeled “sympathizers or affiliates of IPOB/ESN”. There is also reckless use of transfer of criminal responsibility or apportionment of blames on wrong parties, in addition to false labeling, hasty and hearsay conclusions, class or mass criminalization and ethno-religious profiling-all done without credible intelligence and detailed and conclusive criminal investigations.

Reckless Resort By State Actors To Structural Violence, Physical Violence And Cultural Violence: Part of the murderous armed state actor operational policy fueling mass killings, abductions and disappearances of thousands of Igbo Land South-East Judeo-Christian civilians especially their productive male population-is reckless and indiscriminate resort to structural, physical and cultural violence; a deliberate policy of depopulation. Structural Violence is sustained through gross lopsidedness and discrimination in the ethnic and religious composition of top military, police and intelligence establishment officers posted to the South-East to man such formations and their field combatants; found to have been steadily dominated since 2015 by Northern Muslim officers and their combatants. Armed state actor Cultural Violence in the East is sustained through reckless use of false labeling, ethno-religious profiling and mass or class criminalization; resulting in mass killings, abductions and disappearances (Physical Violence).

In Service to Humanity,

For: International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law-Intersociety, Nigeria

Emeka Umeagbalasi, Criminologist and Graduate of Security Studies

Lead Researcher and Head of Intersociety Nigeria

Chidinma Evangeline Udegbunam, Barrister-at-Law

Head, Department of Campaign and Publicity, Intersociety Nigeria

Obianuju Joy Igboeli, Barrister-at-Law

Head, Department of Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, Intersociety Nigeria

Digital Contacts:

Mobile/WhatsApp Lines: +2349043234178, +2349130156872

Email: info@intersociety-ng.org: Website: https://intersociety-ng.org

For: Ekwenche Research Institute & Organization, Chicago, Illinois, United States

Prof Justin Akujieze

President and Chairman of the Board

Ekwenche Research Institute, USA

Contact: +1 (773) 206-9401

Mazi Luke Nwannunu

Secretary and Chair, Finance Committee

Ekwenche Research Institute, USA

Contact: +1 (773) 294-1997

Rev. Father Emeka Nwachukwu

Chair, Education and Spirituality Committee

Ekwenche Research Institute, USA

Contact: +1(630) 835-4918

Digital Contacts:

Website: www.ekwenche .org

Email: ekwenche@gmail.com

Phone Line: +1 (773) 206-9401

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