How Anambra Vigilante Group, in Collaboration with the Army, Kidnapped and Tortured Residents After Labeling Them as "ESN Members"

How Anambra Vigilante Group, in Collaboration with the Army, Kidnapped and Tortured Residents After Labeling Them as "ESN Members"...

How Anambra Vigilante Group, in Collaboration with the Army, Kidnapped and Tortured Residents After Labeling Them as "ESN Members"

 

According to witnesses, the vigilantes were alleged to be responsible for the deaths of at least 30 residents of Uli and Egbuoma since 2022, while dozens more have been abducted, tortured, or forced to pay millions in ransom.

The Ndikeokwu-Uli vigilante outfit in collusion with the Nigerian Army and some politicians has been accused of unleashing terror on communities in Ihiala, Anambra State, and parts of Imo State.

According to witnesses, the vigilantes were alleged to be responsible for the deaths of at least 30 residents of Uli and Egbuoma since 2022, while dozens more have been abducted, tortured, or forced to pay millions in ransom.

The vigilante group in Anambra State was also accused of committing widespread human rights abuses, including killings, abductions, torture, and extortion, allegedly in collaboration with military personnel and wealthy political actors.

The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) in a report sent to SaharaReporters on Wednesday noted that the vigilantes often without investigation raided the youths and labelled them as "the unknown gunmen" to extort money from the families and torture them.

The InterSociety in a petition dated September 30, 2025, and addressed to Prince Ken Emeakai, the Special Adviser on Community Security to the Anambra State Governor and Ikioye Orutugu, Commissioner of Police, noted that the Ndikeokwu-Uli Vigilante Outfit often falsely labelled their victims as members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Eastern Security Network (ESN), a pretext to justify extrajudicial killings across the South-East.

The report noted that its July 25, 2025, petition to the state government prompted the Agunaechemba security outfit, an Anambra government-controlled force, to launch investigations and raids.

The raids led to the rescue of six civilians, including two from Onitsha Army Barracks and four from vigilante camps in Uli.

The group said the rescued victims revealed chilling details: some were held in “torture and killing camps” before being handed to army camps at Ihiala, Orsu, Ihembosi, and Onitsha.

Families, according to Intersociety, were forced to pay millions of naira for releases, allegedly shared between vigilante leaders and military collaborators.

According to the group, one survivor, Kosarachi Ohajuba from Egbuoma, recounted being abducted on June 20, 2025, and shuttled across six vigilante and military camps, including one in Sokoto.

Ohajuba recounted how 14 of 18 detainees with him were executed, while others were freed after ransom payments.

Ohajuba’s eventual release on September 4 followed media pressure and intervention by Intersociety.

The report documented the names of ten Egbuoma indigenes killed between 2022 and 2025, including Chijioke Mgbeobu (March 2023), Sunday Onyebuchi (September 2022), and Uchenna Ahize (December 2023).

In one case, Ohajuba’s mother was forced to raise N550,000 but was later told to sell family land for an additional N3 million before her son’s release.

Another victim, Achiose Odemgbe, was freed only after his relatives paid N3 million.

The vigilante group also reportedly looted and destroyed civilian homes.

The report noted that at least 10 houses in Egbuoma were razed, while market traders were robbed of fuel, phones, beer, and other goods during a July 2025 daylight attack.

According to Intersociety, the vigilantes were bankrolled by unnamed wealthy businessmen who shielded them from justice, even flying culpable members abroad to evade arrest.

The group said victims identified collaborators from the 34 Army Brigade in Obinze, Imo State, and the 302 Army Cantonment in Onitsha.

The group’s leaders were identified as Kingsley Arinzechukwu Iruobi (alias “AK-47 De Killer”), “Oba Ehi 2/c De Killer,” “ND De Vampire,” and Okechukwu Obi, alias “Bitter Cola.”

They were said to be in possession of illegal firearms.

Intersociety commended the Anambra State-owned security outfit, Agunaechemba, for recent raids but demanded full dismantling of the group’s camps, prosecution of its leaders and collaborators, and compensation for victims’ families.

The group, however, warned, “Unless these perpetrators are disarmed, blacklisted, dismissed from security engagements, and tried for culpable murders and atrocity crimes, the risk of revenge, backlash, and lawsuits remains high.”

The report added, "In the broad day light of Friday, July 11, 2025, the dreaded outfit invaded a popular junction close to Afor-Egbu Market located at Ebenano Village of Egbuoma and opened fire, shot indiscriminately and engaged in looting spree.

"Among the 14 citizens feared killed by the dreaded outfit was Okeke Obinna Benedict, from neighbouring Ohakpu Community in Oru-West, Imo State. He had come to see a relative on June 20, 2025, the same day Kosarachi was abducted.

"Available accounts showed that rescued Kosarachi Ohajuba was abducted by Ndikeokwu-Uli Vigilante killer outfit on June 20, 2025 and held captive for more than one month, before being handed over to an Ihiala Army camp, from where he was transferred alongside three others from one Army camp to another.

"They are likely to have been saved from execution following disclosures contained in our petition of July 25, 2025 and wide publicity. The four including Citizen Kosarachi, were handed over to a local Army camp at Ihiala as ‘confirmed IPOB/ESN members’ to be executed and their bodies criminally interred or disposed without traces. Their handover to some personnel of the Nigerian Army was also to cover up and escape culpability. 

"It was from Onitsha Army Barracks that Kosarachi Ohajuba was bundled at late night, possibly alongside other captives, to faraway Sokoto State, during which he was blindfolded and forced into two days of tortious journey.

"Kosarachi further informed the Intersociety that it was in Sokoto that a Northern Muslim Army officer informed him, thus: ‘kai inyamili, na Sokoto we dey oo!’; and that it was from there that he was brought back to Onitsha Army Barracks and placed under one Army Officer named Haruna and detained at off barracks cell located at ‘civilian mammy cell’ where those accused of ‘wandering’ and late hour returnees are rounded up, detained and later freed for a fee after being tortured or brutalised. As a matter of fact, he cheated death and refused to die, having been severely and severally tortured and brutalised at each of the six death camps.

"Kosarachi Ohajuba was finally and miraculously located, having been tracked following a distress call made to his mother after he was returned to Onitsha Army Barracks on August 28, 2025 during which he was detained for extra seven days after which his mother put a distress call to us, from where he was finally freed without paying a dime on September 4, 2025."