The Foundation for Environmental Rights, Advocacy and Development, FENRAD, a human and environmental rights advocacy group in Abia State has stressed the need for all the security agencies deployed to the Southeast to follow the rules of engagement, in the interest of the region and nation at large, especially that of travelers to and from the region.
The FENRAD Executive Director, Comrade Nelson Nwafor, who made the call in a statement on Friday, said it is in line with the mandate of the Foundation in ensuring that healthy and robust relations between the security agencies and citizens is enhanced and deepened at all times.
The Southeast region of Nigeria, a predominantly Christian enclave, witnesses heightened activities during this time of the year.
In recent days, videos have emerged showing military personnel and other security operatives subjecting travelers on Southeast roads to serious gridlock and hardship, through roadblocks.
According to the FENRAD boss, even though insecurity is currently plaguing the Southeast, the season allows family members and loved ones to reunite physically, especially those living in other parts of the country and beyond.
He said given that the Southeast has suffered a lot as a result of the ongoing agitation for separate existence with many attendant problems, it behoves the security agencies to play by the rules and ensure that the weakened security landscape of the region is not further ruptured by their conduct during this season.
He cited the order given by the Inspector General of Police that no citizen be illegally arrested, detained or harassed in any manner of form, especially under the guise of search operation, where the security agencies search citizens’ phones and gadgets without warrant.
Nwafor said according to findings by the Foundation, illegal arrest and forced detention usually increase in the region during the festive period, hence the need to review the operation of security personnel stationed in the region for a win-win outcome.
Nwafor bemoaned the issue of countless roadblocks in the region.
“Beginning from the Igboeze North LGA axis which borders areas like Olamanboro LGA in Kogi State, to the boundary between Enugu and Abia, are to be found over 25 military and police checkpoints, not to mention other beats manned by sister agencies, whereas this is not the case in other parts of the country, including the once-dreaded Abuja-Kaduna expressway in the North,” he said.
The FENRAD ED lamented the shrinking civic space in the Southeast as a result of the activities of law enforcement agents deployed thereto.
According to him, Christmas, which ought to be a season of joy and reflection for mankind, has become a period of sustained exploitation of motorists and other road users.
This, he said, informs the call for the dismantling of some of the roadblocks and for better policing and security enforcement standards from all state institutions charged with security service provision in the region.
“The Foundation believes that only professionalism from the security and law enforcement agencies will make the season and its reason worthwhile, as it calls for a review of security enforcement in those places within the Southeast where citizens are expected to get off their vehicles and raise their hands (in total surrender) just to pass military checkpoints in peacetime,” Nwafor concluded.
