By Correspondent in Abuja.
A diaspora-based group, the Concerned Citizens of Igbo Nation in Diaspora (CCIND), has called on southeastern Nigerians to unite and establish community-based hunters’ associations to confront the rising wave of banditry and terrorist attacks ravaging the region.
The group’s spokesperson, Emeka Livingstone, made the appeal in an open letter to Ndigbo, a copy of which was made available to journalists in Abuja on Monday.
“In recent weeks, disturbing developments across Igboland,from Ebonyi, Enugu, and Anambra to Imo and Abia States,demand urgent and coordinated action from all well-meaning sons and daughters of Ndigbo,” the statement said.
Livingstone lamented the worsening security situation in the Southeast, highlighting numerous incidents that resulted in the loss of lives and property.
“In June 2025 alone, terrorists disguised as herdsmen and bandits unleashed brutal attacks in Agwa and other communities in Oguta Local Government Area of Imo State, leaving many dead and several others, including a pregnant woman, critically injured,” he said.
He noted that victims were often attacked in their homes and on their farmlands, citing the killing of a U.S.-based returnee and the abduction of his wife in Umuguma, Owerri West LGA of Imo State.
Livingstone further recounted attacks in Enugu State, particularly in Eha-Amufu, a community in Isi-Uzo LGA, which he described as a frequent target.
He said the June 9, 2025, attack on Mgbuji Autonomous Community left several people dead. A similar incident occurred on June 12, 2025, along the Umuahia-Akara Road in Abia State, where terrorists kidnapped all eight passengers and the driver of a Toyota Sienna and vanished into the forest.
“It is deeply troubling that these terrorists continue to commit these heinous crimes with impunity across Igboland,” Livingstone said.
“The innocent victims were in their homes and farms when these heavily armed herdsmen terrorists invaded their communities in the evening of the first day of June 2025, killed a United States-based returnee, abducted his wife in Umuguma, Owerri West local government area, Imo State.
“In Enugu state, two different herdsmen terrorist attacks occurred within a space of one week.
“The latest occured on
June 9, 2025, when these terrorists invaded Eha-Amufu, a frequent target, in Isi-Uzo Local Government Area of Enugu state, killing several people in Mgbuji autonomous community.
“Following this was on June 12, 2025, in Umuahia-Akara Road, Abia State, when these terrorists kidnapped all eight passengers and the driver in a Toyota Sienna vehicle and disappeared into the forest.
“It is very worrisome these terrorists always get away with their heinous crimes Igboland,” he said.
Livingstone said the “spikes in recurrent attacks in the whole of the Southeast are one too many that have led to loss of many lives and properties of innocent Igbo citizens in Alaigbo since the extraordinary rendition of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu from Kenya where he was kidnapped and forcefully brought to Nigeria by the Nigerian government and her security agencies in June 2021.”
According to him, insecurity in the southeast is at its worst state since Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), was abducted from Kenya.
He alleged that the politicians of southeast extraction, including seating and past governors, National Assembly members, have done nothing to stem the worsening insecurity in the region.
“The most, a negligible few of them have done so far is paying lip service while the others have kept a deafening silence out of fear of losing political favors.
“In some cases, some of these politicians tend to undermine the efforts of certain communities and well-intentioned groups formed to protect and secure communities in Alaigbo.
“It is horrifying to realize that what started as a provocation from a group that questioned the validity of western life
and education; that presented itself as Boko haram, ISWAP, Ansarudeen, Lakurawa and other jihadists, has snowballed into a national security crisis that has gone largely unchecked.
“The insecurity in the southeast highlights the fact that there is a deliberate plot to disquiet Southeast.
“The inaction of our leaders adds fuel to the injury,” he said.
He stressed the need for constant outcry and initiated pragmatic measures to arrest the incessant invasion and terrorism in Alaigbo.
“We therefore call on Ndi Igbo to organize the association of hunters in their various communities in Igbo land to counter the operatives of terror in our bushes and end this carnage, once and for all.
“We must employ and deploy every means necessary and possible for the security, prosperity and preservation of Alaigbo. We therefore earnestly call on Igbo youths to rise, organize and defend Igboland, our only homeland,” he said.
Edited by Dada Ahmed.
