Security spies have flooded the South-East and South-South, leading to apprehension among the local populations, the major rights group in the two sister regions said. In a statement issued Sunday afternoon in Onitsha, the International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law (Intersociety) said that some of the spies have been exposed in parts of the East. The statement was signed by Board Chairman Emeka Umeagbalasi, Head, Democracy & Good Governance Programme, Chinwe Umeche, Esq., and Head, Civil Liberties & Rule of Law Programme, Obianuju Joy Igboeli, Esq.

In it, Intersociety said: “Pieces of credible evidence exposing the conspiratorial roles of security forces in the country’s non-State actor butcheries across its rain forests region are mounting on daily basis; likewise those directly linking the Buhari’s Federal Government and its security chiefs to incessancy of State terrorism and murders in the Southern part of Nigeria. There are continuing reports of sponsored security personnel particularly members of the armed forces posing as “alamajari” shoe makers or shoe shiners, “Mai-ruwa” (water fetchers), beggars, finger nail cutters, and barrow pushers flooding the streets of southern cities particularly those of the South-East and the South-South regions for the purpose of embarking on well coordinated intelligence gathering missions for Hausa-Fulani oligarchs. From Nnewi to Onitsha; Awka to Ekwulobia; Abakiliki to Enugu; Umuahia to Aba; Owerri to Port Harcourt; the number of cities under siege by those marauding elements is many to be named.”

Citing instances, Intersociety said: “In Nnewi, Anambra State, for instance, a doctor of a teaching hospital recently ran into an officer he knew way back in the north, called Sani, whom he saw posing as a shoe shiner along a road in Nnewi. On shouting his name twice, the officer-soldier saw and recognised him; took to his heel and abandoned his shoe shining basket.

“In Owerri, Imo State, there was also a case of another soldier posing as shoe maker, whose identity card dropped from his pocket and a person nearby picked it and discovered that he is a serving soldier of the northern extraction.

“At Ekwulobia, Anambra State, there was a heated argument between a supposedly shoe maker of northern extraction and his customer; leading to a near-fist cuff and along the line, an identity card of the supposed shoe maker dropped from his pocket and he turned out to be a soldier of the northern extraction. Other instances abound.”

News Express will this evening publish the detailed statement in which Intersociety alleged ethnic bloodshed, rights abuses and other regime atrocities in Nigeria, indicting security forces and a broad spectrum of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs).

•Photo shows National Security Adviser, Retired Gen. Babagana Mungono.