Nigeria human rights lawyer and lead counsel to the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Sir Ifeanyi Ejiofor, has commended security operatives for the arrest of an alleged commander of a jihadist terror network operating in the forests of Enugu State.
Ejiofor made the commendation in his latest Midweek Musings, titled “Alaigbo Under Siege: The Forests Must No Longer Be Safe Havens for Jihadist Kidnapping Networks How Jihadist Kidnapping Networks Are Infiltrating Enugu Communities and Alaigbo in General Under the Cover of Cattle Rearing,” issued on Wednesday.
According to the human rights lawyer, the latest security breakthrough in Enugu State has once again exposed what he described as a deeply disturbing security reality,criminal and terrorist networks are allegedly exploiting forested areas as hideouts, stockpiling weapons and using difficult terrain as launching pads for kidnapping and other violent crimes.
“No forest should be a sanctuary for terrorists. No community should be a marketplace for ransom. No criminal network should be allowed to establish a parallel authority over our people, and no citizen should be compelled to negotiate with criminals for the right to live,” Ejiofor said.
He said the recovery of sophisticated firearms and ammunition, coupled with the arrest of suspected members of the network during coordinated security operations, should not be treated as an isolated incident.
Rather, he argued, the development should serve as a warning requiring sustained intelligence gathering, surveillance and decisive action by the relevant security agencies.
The statement reads in part:
It may surprise many who are not familiar with the level of infiltration in our various forests by these jihadist terrorists who operate under the guise of cattle rearing and consequently camp in some of our forests, where they use such locations as cover to launch attacks and kidnapping activities against unsuspecting members of the public.
In the past, this story might have been suppressed or dismissed as alarmism. Today, however, the repeated discovery of criminal hideouts and the arrest of the commander of these jihadist elements within the Garki axis of Enugu State, an area predominantly regarded as a herders’ settlement, as well as the discovery of arms caches, demonstrate that the security challenge is real and demands a sustained, intelligence-led response.
When I raised the alarm about the activities of these jihadist marauders who had gradually established themselves in some forest corridors across the South-East and other parts of the country, some doubters ostensibly undermined the seriousness of the alarm. Reality, unfortunately, has a stubborn way of defeating denial.
Kidnapping is now occurring across too many communities, and victims frequently recount encounters with armed men operating from secluded forest locations, who they always mention as Fulani herdsmen. We must confront these facts honestly, while equally acknowledging that criminality must never be attributed to an entire ethnic group or religious community. The enemy is the armed criminal and terrorist, not the innocent citizen who happens to share his ethnicity, occupation or faith.
The audacity of these criminals is particularly alarming: they have demonstrated the capacity to penetrate communities, approach vulnerable locations-like churches and marketplaces-and target ordinary citizens, including mothers, fathers and children. A forest cannot become a private republic for kidnappers simply because law-abiding citizens are afraid to enter it.
The preventive strategy must include sustained intelligence-led operations to locate, dismantle and permanently deny these jihadist terrorist networks the use of forest corridors as safe havens.
This is not a campaign against an ethnicity.
It is not a campaign against a religion.
It is a campaign for the right of every Nigerian to live, farm, worship and travel without becoming prey to jihadist criminals.
I commend the Enugu State Government and gallant security agencies for the progress recorded so far. But isolated successes are not enough.
The message must therefore be unmistakable:
No forest should be a sanctuary for terrorists.
No community should be a marketplace for ransom.
No criminal network should be allowed to establish a parallel authority over our people.
And no citizen should be compelled to negotiate with criminals for the right to live.
Our land belongs to law-abiding citizens. And the responsibility to reclaim it from criminal occupation belongs to the State.
The time for denial is over.
ALAIGBO MUST BE SAFE AGAIN"
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