The Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC), a civic organization, asserts that the ongoing insecurity in South-East Nigeria should not be solely attributed to the secessionist groups advocating for the creation of the Biafra Nation.

RULAAC disclosed this during the presentation of a report titled “Unveiling the Roots of Insecurity, Healing the Wounds of Human Rights Violations in Southeast Nigeria: A Path Towards Peace, Open Democratic Space and a Prosperous Future."

The human rights group accused the Nigerian government of adopting a counterproductive approach in its fight against insecurity in the South-East region with a mindset to kill everything because of the ‘hatred’ of then-President Muhammadu Buhari towards the region.

In his remark during the unveiling of the report produced in partnership with Action Group on Free Civic Space (AGFCS), the Executive Director of RULAAC, Comrade Okechukwu Nwanguma, explained that the report was intended to drive the true narrative about the nature, roots, patterns, dimensions and the effects of current government’s approach to tackling insecurity in the region.

He noted that one of the additional factors fueling the cycle of violence, as documented in the report, is the Nigerian government’s single-minded brute force and counterproductive approach to fighting insecurity in the zone.

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"The sheer number of persons arrested and arraigned in one day by the police in Imo State for purportedly conspiring to overthrow President Buhari and Governor Hope Uzodinma was outlandish. Police did not show what weapons with which the people, including women and children, were going to carry out the overthrow.

'That was nothing more than a malicious declaration of war against innocent and law-abiding residents of Imo State going about their legitimate businesses. It was a direct outcome of the Inspector General of Police's directive to Police Officers to take the war to IPOB and not to bother about observing the rules of engagement or be deterred by the media shouts of human rights violation.”

The chairman of the occasion, Prof Okey Ibeanu, who is the Regional Director (West Africa) at Ford Foundation, which provided financial support for the report, regretted that Southeast which used to be a bastion of peace had been turned into a theatre of war.