The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, has implicated the Ebonyi State Governor, Dave Umahi of using “armed criminals in cooperation with the state’s cops command to pester, arbitrarily arrest and illegally detain members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and other opposition platforms in the state.”

In a statement released on Sunday by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, and the National Director of Media, Miss Zainab Yusuf, HURIWA declared that the state federal government, in cooperation with some security agents, are using the newly-established civilian vigilante to bug Governor Umahi’s political rivals.

According to the rights group, police officers in the state, instead of screen professionalism and neutrality and impose the rule of law, are presumably siding the government and has “effectively end up being the main guard dog used by the state federal government to legitimize the violence let loose on members of PDP”.

HURIWA even more stated that there have been troubling allegations of physical violence that are politically encouraged which were let loose on members of opposition parties by the vigilante group, EbubeAgu with the aim of silencing the governor’s political competitors.

The group asked the Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, to display management quality by triggering internal systems to examine the growing varieties of cases of violence on PDP members and some media specialists who are presumably attacked for their independent opinions relating to Umahi’s federal government.

According to HURIWA, “On the 9th of January 2022, Mr Nwoba Chika Nwoba the State Publicity Secretary of PDP was taking a trip in a vehicle along Abakaliki– Enugu Expressway together with Barr. Ifeanyi Emmanuel Nworie, when a Sienna bus without registration number overtook their car and obstructed them and a gang led presumably by one Mr Felix Okerini, alias “Jango” and Mr Ikechukwu Eze alias “Power” presumably surrounded them, shooting sporadically in the air.

“It was declared that the armed hooligans then took out Mr Nwoba from the cars and truck, beat him to a pulp and threw him into the boot of their Sienna. Amidst the whipping, shooting and pandemonium with heavy traffic buildup, Mr Nworie had the ability to get in touch with a nearby police patrol group which came to the scene and moved both the assaulters and victims to the State Police Headquarters in Abakaliki.

“To everyone’s utter bewilderment, the attackers were released almost right away while the hurt victims were detained by the police officers.

“Also, On December 29, in 2021, an armed gang got into the location of a reception arranged in honour of the freshly elected State Chairman of the PDP by his neighborhood at Okposi in Ohaozora Local Government Area and started shooting sporadically into the air as residents ran for their dear lives.

“The gang, according to reports, totally damaged both canopies and chairs set up for the occasion and repelled undisputed by the police officers who were invited to supply security for the event.

“Similarly, on December 26 2021, another gang routed one Mr Felix Nworogbo of Amagu community in Abakaliki Local Government Area to the borders of the town; shot him on the leg and hand and discarded him in a rain gutter simply as on January 1 2022. Mr Onyema Ugwu and Nwali Chimaobi, ward officers of PDP in Ezza South LGA were abducted by yet another gang, tortured in their Ebubeagu den.”

The rights group required the immediate release of Mr. Chika Nwoba, the State Publicity Secretary of the PDP, who is presently in the custody of the police command for more than 48 hours of his “abduction by an armed gang” called vigilante and detention by cops.