With few hours to the inauguration of newly elected governors, the leading civil Rights Advocacy group:- HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has tasked governors-elect of South East States to tackle insecurity, work vigourously on industrialization and create a common security and economic bloc amongst the South East States.

HURIWA Condemns President Muhammadu Buhari’s intransigence and persistent disobedience of the Court of Appeal judgment which ordered unconditional freedom for the prolonged detained leader of the proscribed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB). HURIWA said pro-constitutional and democracy groups may approach the Federal High Court after President Buhari’s exit to seek for his prosecution for disobeying the Constitution.

HURIWA warned newly elected governors of the South East of Nigeria to go straight to work for their people and the region and evolve and execute a development template that will create the enabling environment for productivity, job and wealth creation by the people and to vigouroudly confront the monster of youth unemployment and organised crimes.

“If other governors will fritter critical times after they are sworn –in to go partying, those of the South East do not have such luxury because they have their jobs cut out given the heightened security situation. The South East is suffering from economic and security hemorrhage which means that all hands must be on deck to restore peace, stability and sustainable development. “

HURIWA urged the South East governors-elect that when sworn in, the must realize that the entire South East States are connected by a common umbilical chord, making it imperatives that the governors and legislators from Igbo States should work in synergy to create a formidable economic bloc and to industrialize their states. The South East States should also leverage on the legal reforms around the energy power sector to introduce clean energy and build and power electricity infrastructures to give life to the dreams of Igbo people for the rapid industrialisation of Igbo region.

“The new governors of South East should convoke a South East peace and Reconciliation Commission to bring all warring groups to the dialogue table for the sake of the urgent need to create a peaceful and an enabling environment for the public and private sectors to thrive. HURIWA is urging all armed groups to observe permanent cessation of violence, embrace dialogues and reduce tensions just as the Rights group urged the new governors of South East to meet with the President-Elect after inauguration to ask him to withdraw the armed security forces who are accused of mass killings of Igbo youths.

HURIWA in a statement by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko said the most urgent task for the governors of the South East region, is to halt the killings by security forces and Sundry armed groups and to put to an end the illegal stay at home order on Mondays.

HURIWA regretted that between February and October 21, no fewer than 255 citizens, including security agents, had been killed in an undignified manner, while property worth billions of naira, including entire communities, had been destroyed.

Also, the violence reached an alarming crescendo on October 19, 2021, with the killing of two monarchs in the Njaba Local Government Area of Imo State.

Attack on traditional institutions in Igbo land is considered sacrilegious as monarchs are regarded as the custodians of the people’s customs. During the attack, the Obi 1 of the Okwudor Autonomous Community, Eze Anayochukwu Durueburuo, and his counterpart from the Ihebineowerre Autonomous Community, Eze Sampson Osunwa, were gruesomely murdered at the Njaba Local Government Council headquarters in Nnenasa during a stakeholders’ meeting.

HURIWA learnt that other traditional rulers at the meeting escaped with varying degrees of injury.

On September 28, 2021, Dr Chike Akunyili, a medical director and widower of the former Minister of Information and Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, Dora, was killed alongside his driver and police orderly at Umuoji in the Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State.

The murder of Chike Akunyili, brought to seven the number of high profile killings in the zone in the last six months, and altogether 255 killings within a period of nine months.

Besides, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress and former aide to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Ahmed Gulak, was killed on Saturday, May 29 in the year 2021 in Owerri, Imo State.

On May 31 of the same year, a retired Enugu State High Court judge, Justice Stanley Nnaji, was killed in Enugu metropolis.

Similarly, on July 4, the Chief Executive Officer of AutoEase, Ifeanyi Okeke, was killed in Enugu and three days later, the Executive Director, Scientific Equipment Development Institute, Prof Samuel Ndubuisi, and his orderly were assassinated along the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway in the same town.

Investigation showed that the insecurity escalated when the IPOB announced the establishment of the Eastern Security Network following the inability of the South-East governors to address the invasion of local communities by armed herdsmen.

Many believe that attempts by the Nigerian security agencies to crush the group gave rise to the current insecurity in the South-East.