THE National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member, Jennifer Elohor, has narrated how suspected operatives of the Anambra State Vigilante Group broke into her residence, assaulted her, and forcefully abducted her along with her colleagues.
Speaking in an interview with media personality Aprokoking, Elohor recounted that the incident took place on July 13 at about 5 p.m. when the operatives started banging the door to the lodge where she and other corps members were residing.
“At first, we thought it was our neighbours’ door because it’s a three-storey building with several flats. But the knock became louder and more aggressive, so I decided to check. Before I could reach the door, it was kicked open,” Elohor said.
The ICIR reported that videos that surfaced on Tuesday, August 19, showed armed men in plain clothes storming the corps members’ lodge in Oba community, Anambra State, where they were seen beating and harassing Elohor.
The State Government, through Governor Charles Soludo’s Special Adviser on Community Security, Ken Emeakayi, confirmed that the men seen in the video were members of Operation ‘Udo Ga-Achi,’ also known as the Agunechemba Vigilante Group. He condemned the assault.
Elohor in her latest statement explained that a masked man, armed with a gun and without any form of identification or uniform, stormed into their room, ransacked it, confiscated corps members phones and laptops, and the incident turned violent.
“At first, I thought it was an armed robber until he ordered all of us to come outside. I tried to explain that we were corps members and even suggested showing our NYSC identity cards. My colleagues also presented theirs, but the men ignored us.
“They pushed us downstairs, almost shoving me down the staircase. They kept asking what gave me the right, as a woman, to challenge them. It was when we got outside that we saw their vehicle and discovered they were from the Anambra Vigilante Group,” she said.
She added that when they asked to contact their lodge proprietor or NYSC officials to inform them of their whereabouts, the vigilante members grew even more violent.
“They beat me, tore my clothes, and even hit one of my colleagues with an iron rod for pleading on my behalf. They forced me into their vehicle, pressing my neck, slapping me, and threatening to smash our phones if we contacted anyone,” she said.
The ICIR reported that the Anambra State Government announced on Wednesday that the operatives responsible for the assault have been dismissed.
However, on Thursday, members of the Labour Party Caucus in the National Assembly dismissed the state government’s reported dismissal of the operatives as a mere afterthought, questioning why it took the administration several weeks to act when the incident allegedly occurred last month.
In a joint statement, the lawmakers condemned the incident as a “heinous, cruel, and criminal act that grossly violated the laws of the land”, urging the Anambra State Government to take swift action to safeguard the peace and security of residents and visitors by ensuring the “rogue agents” are held accountable.
“We can wager a bet that, but for public outcry over the matter, the Governor Chukwuma Soludo administration would have, as in several other incidents, simply swept the dastardly act under the carpet,” the statement read.
The lawmakers noted that the impunity and lawlessness of the Agunechemba are well documented and must be curbed before it escalates any further.
“The recourse to jungle tactics, one of which led to the brazen assault on the Corp member, was inhuman and barbaric and is hereby condemned in its entirety.
“The Caucus as a responsible and law abiding forum do not support criminality, but is seriously amazed that vigilante services in Anambra State are beginning to take over the functions of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Police, such that they now have the effrontery to burst into female Corpers Lodge to brutalise and strip ladies naked, all under the guise of fighting crime.
Nanji is an investigative journalist with the ICIR. She has years of experience in reporting and broadcasting human angle stories, gender inequalities, minority stories, and human rights issues. She has documented sexual war crimes in armed conflict, sex for grades in Nigerian Universities, harmful traditional practices and human trafficking.