The Five Types Of Unknown Gunmen Ravaging The Southeast

Over the past couple of months, the Southeast has faced insecurity fractures never seen in the recent history of the region. Police stations, INEC facilities, and human lives are attacked, burned, and taken with nefarious precision. The people of the region, the government in the region and the centre, security operatives, socio-cultural groups, rights groups, political parties, and the media are caught in the web of the shock, allegations, counter-allegations, cant, and juxtapositions.

We took out time to list all the police facilities attacked in the Southeast and its environs and it makes a chilling read.

Amidst these rhetorics are children who have become fatherless, women who are now widows, mothers who are now sonless, and countless nieces and nephews, brothers and sisters, aunties and uncles, and friends, associates, partners, neighbours, etc, who have lost someone dear to them, someone they would never see again.

Wading through the turgid waters of unknown gunmen attacks and casting aside the fluffy flesh of its politics, here is reaching to the bones and naming all the possible groups that parade themselves as unknown gunmen.

Of the five types of unknown gunmen we analyzed, we might get one or two wrong but not outright wrong; it would be a matter of technicality mostly caused by honest omissions or whelming analysis – where overwhelming or underwhelming reach could have served.

Here are the types of unknown gunmen attacking people and facilities in the Zik Region.

1. Unknown Gunmen from the remnants of the EndSARS violence

In October 2020, Nigerian youths took to the streets and roads of the cities and towns of the country to demand a stop to the police brutality they suffer at the hands of a killer group, SARS (Special Anti-Robbery Squad) who have harassed, robbed, raped, and murdered dozens of youth under the pretext of fighting “Yahoo boys” – a code for online fraudsters.

The protests generated a massive response from across the world with celebrities in Europe and America joining in the push to end police brutality in the most populous black nation on earth.

The authorities in Nigeria announced the disbandment of SARS. But it didn’t outrightly condemn the group, nor prosecute any of the rogue group, nor compensate thousands of family members who are still hurting over the brutal murders of their children most of whose bodies they couldn’t even find to bury.

So the protests continued.

Then it became violent. First, Benin Prison was “broken” into and inmates freed. This was followed by heightened pockets of violence across the states. The Lagos State governor, Sanwo-Olu declared a night curfew on the afternoon of October 20th.

That night, soldiers attacked protesters at Lekki Toll Gate and killed an unspecified number of people, and murdered dozens. The outrage that followed this attack was not just online. Offline, hoodlums took to the streets: They began to destroy public (and private) properties, and attack police stations.

An aspect of unknown gunmen ravaging the east derives its root from the EndSARS protests and the barbaric violence that followed.

2. Political Unknown Gunmen

Political unknown gunmen are a type of unknown gunmen who are out to score political points or hamper the political ascendancy of opponents. In March 2021, unknown gunmen attacked a campaign rally of Charles Soludo, the leading All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, a contender for the party’s gubernatorial ticket. These criminals killed two or three policemen.

On Sunday, the 30th of May 2021, a former top aide of President Jonathan and APC chieftain, Ahmed Gulak, was assassinated in Owerri, Imo State.

PDP youth leader of Imo State was murdered on the 1st of June.

The fallout from these attacks and killings point to political motifs.

Someone is hiding behind unknown gunmen to settle political scores.

In fact, other killings not against the political class or a politician may even fall under the graph bar of political unknown gunmen. Ebonyi and Imo State governors, avowed opponents of IPOB, have in one time and the other said some of the attacks by unknown gunmen are not carried out by IPOB/ESN. This leaves politics as the only aspect of this violence.

It can also be anti-Igbo.

3. Anti-Igbo Unknown Gunmen

If the unknown gunmen have an agenda and they are not IPOB and not political, then the remaining possibility is to fuel anti-Igbo sentiments among other Nigerians.

With the call for Biafra gathering storm and the sympathy for victims of the Biafra War becoming more mainstream and acceptable across Igboland and outside, as seen in the compliance of the sit-at-home order of May 31st and the #Ozoemena and related trends, it is normal to make opponents of Biafra/Igbos uncomfortable. Thus the need to paint IPOB as terrorists and Igboland as unstable, by a group the Ezeife referred to as external people.

Besides IPOB, there are many reasons why someone will want to paint Igbos bad. Some of these include the usual hatred many other Nigerians have against Ndigbo, the desire of Ndigbo to succeed Buhari in 2023, the need to make insecurity a Nigerian thing and not just a northern problem, etc.

This last point is why many are quick to compare IPOB with Boko Haram, comparing Nnamdi Kanu and internationally wanted terrorist Shekau, and threatening Igbos with another civil war (see this and this).

4. Criminal Unknown Gunmen

Unknown gunmen who attack police stations and cart away with ammunition may just be kidnappers, armed robbers, and assassins who are out to get more weapons to boost their trade. We have also heard of instances where unknown gunmen snatch cars.

Criminal unknown gunmen who attack police stations and prisons may be there to free a colleague who is under arrest or imprisoned awaiting trial or serving a term. Someone can also pay unknown to stage a prison break and pass it off as the unusual attack on security operatives and facilities.

Be aware that every attack of unknown gunmen is criminal but we are after ones that are solely criminal devoid of political and tribal undertones. However, sometimes, an act of unknown gunmen can cut across two or three other types of unknown gunnery.

The assassination of the Enugu ex-judge Stanley Nnaji can cut across the types of unknown gunmen. They could be criminals after his car, they could be assassins after his life which can be due to personal beef, family feud, enemies earned from his professional life, or to silence him due to what he knows, they could be killers who are out to sow discord and fear.

This assassination could fall under political, anti-Igbo, and criminal. It can also be criminal/political, criminal/anti-Igbo, or criminal/criminal.

5. IPOB-Sympathetic Unknown Gunmen

If you think we won’t include IPOB or IPOB-leaning or IPOB-sympathetic unknown gunmen here then you are not telling yourself the truth. For one, IPOB since the creation of the Eastern Security Network, ESN, is now armed. You can make excuses for their bearing arms but they have become an armed group or a group with an armed organ, depending on how you see it.

For another, IPOB is vocal over the pursuit of their aspirations via peaceful channels but will not hesitate to return violence with violence. IPOB has suffered a lot of killings and detentions at the hands of Nigerian authorities – the Python Dance military campaigns in the east have remained symbolic in fueling anti-security sentiments among IPOB members and sympathizers.

We will revenge, IPOB has said of the Python Dance.

We will revenge, IPOB has said of the killing of ESN commander Ikonso and other ESN operatives.

We will revenge, IPOB has said of the Fulani herdsmen’s attack on the Ebonyi community.

Plus many other “we will revenges” and declarations of no-forgiveness. It is thus a lie to tell yourself that none of the attacks in the Southeast were carried out, by commission or omission, by people who are affiliated or sympathetic to the Indigenous People of Biafra.

Again, it will be a dangerous lie to pursue the narrative of labelling IPOB who only, possibly, accounts for one-fifth of the equation the sole perpetrators of the violence in the Southeast and its environs.

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