By BONIFACE AKARAH

The Foundation for Environmental Rights Advocacy and Development (FENRAD Nigeria) has demanded a comprehensive forensic investigation into the reported discovery of human skulls and other remains in forest locations around Umuaku and Nneato in Isuochi, Umunneochi Local Government Area of Abia State.

FENRAD, in a statement dated September 30, 2026 and signed by its Executive Director, Comrade Nelson Nnanna Nwafor, said the discovery raised serious questions about the safety of residents, missing persons, criminal activities in forest communities and the capacity of security agencies to identify victims and bring perpetrators to justice.

“The identity of the deceased persons and the circumstances surrounding their deaths must be scientifically established,” the organisation said, cautioning that no individual or group should be conclusively accused without credible evidence and due process.

The group called on the Abia State Government, Nigeria Police Force, security and intelligence agencies and other relevant authorities to undertake a coordinated and transparent investigation, beginning with the professional preservation and forensic examination of every recovered human remain.

According to FENRAD, authorities should conduct DNA profiling and comparison, forensic anthropology and osteological examinations, dental examinations, trauma analysis and other procedures capable of establishing the identities and circumstances of death of the victims.

“The objective must be to move beyond merely counting human remains to identifying the individuals represented by those remains and establishing, as far as possible, what happened to them,” it stated.

FENRAD also urged the authorities to establish an accessible process through which families of missing persons can provide relevant information and, where appropriate, biological samples for comparison with the recovered remains.

The organisation said such a process should be handled sensitively and professionally, stressing that families had a right to know what happened to missing relatives.

“Families deserve answers,” FENRAD said, adding that relatives should be informed through a sensitive, lawful and professionally managed process whenever identification is scientifically possible.

The organisation further called for intensified intelligence-led surveillance of forest corridors, abandoned camps, isolated settlements and other locations that could be exploited by criminal networks.

It urged security agencies to investigate whether the site where the remains were found was connected to a wider criminal network or whether similar locations existed elsewhere in Umunneochi and neighbouring communities.

FENRAD also demanded the identification, arrest and prosecution of anyone found, on the basis of credible evidence, to be responsible for killings, concealment of human remains, kidnapping, trafficking or other offences connected with the discovery.

It cautioned, however, that arrests must be evidence-based and followed by due process, insisting that no community, ethnic group or individual should be collectively criminalised because of the actions of suspected perpetrators.

The group said investigators should look beyond the immediate crime scene by reviewing kidnapping cases, unresolved missing-person cases, previous discoveries of human remains and criminal activities associated with forest locations in Umunneochi and neighbouring local government areas.

It also urged authorities to determine whether previous warnings or intelligence reports concerning criminal activity in the area had been adequately acted upon.

Beyond the immediate investigation, FENRAD linked the security challenge to conditions that can allow organised criminal activity to thrive in isolated communities and forest environments.

It identified inadequate security presence, difficult terrain, limited intelligence infrastructure, economic vulnerability, fear of reporting crime, weak inter-agency coordination and poorly monitored forest corridors among the issues requiring attention.

“Forests and other remote landscapes should not become safe havens for organised criminal activities simply because they are difficult to access or monitor,” the organisation said.

FENRAD recommended the establishment of a coordinated forensic investigation team involving police, forensic experts, medical personnel and other competent institutions, as well as a database of unidentified human remains and missing persons subject to privacy and human-rights safeguards.

It also called for stronger forensic capacity in Abia State and the South-East, improved intelligence-led policing, community-security partnerships, witness protection and stronger cooperation among the police, military, intelligence services, civil defence authorities, local governments and traditional institutions.

The organisation further urged authorities to provide regular and verified updates on the investigation without compromising operational security, victims’ privacy or the integrity of the inquiry.

FENRAD said the discovery should not disappear from public attention after the initial news cycle, stressing that every recovered remain represented a person with a family and history.

“Every victim deserves to be identified. Every family deserves the truth. Every perpetrator must face justice based on credible evidence and due process,” it said.

The organisation urged members of the public with credible information about missing persons, suspicious activities or criminal camps in the affected areas to report such information through safe and lawful channels.