The International Society for Civil Rights and Rule of Law (Intersociety), a prominent civil rights advocacy group, has debunked reports linking the recent wave of violent attacks in three communities of Imo State to members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). Instead, the organisation has attributed the killings to jihadist herders who had been dislodged from forested areas in neighbouring Anambra State.
While police authorities claimed that IPOB was behind the attacks, which left over seven people dead, Intersociety’s findings paint a different picture. According to a statement jointly signed by the organisation’s leaders, Emeka Godfrey-Benjamin Umeagbalasi, Chinwendu Cordelia Umeche, Chidinma Evangeline Udegbunam, and Obianuju Joy Igboeli, the killings in Umualaoma and Arondizuogu, specifically the Ndi-Ejezie and Ndi-Akunwanta-Uno areas of Ideato North LGA, were the handiwork of jihadist elements fleeing Anambra after a series of community-led manhunts.
The group explained that local vigilantes and youths from Umunze and Umuchu in Orumba South and Aguata LGAs of Anambra had recently launched coordinated operations to flush out criminal herders from surrounding forests. These efforts reportedly disrupted the jihadists’ operations, forcing them to flee en masse into nearby Imo forests, from where they launched deadly retaliatory attacks.
According to eyewitness reports gathered by Intersociety, the attackers, dressed in military camouflage and riding motorcycles, struck on the night of Thursday, July 24, 2025, between 8 p.m. and 9:20 p.m. at Nkwo-Umualaoma Square. At least 12 villagers were gunned down, including a local tailor, a popular masquerade owner, a chemist store operator, and a visiting footballer who had returned home for his mother’s funeral.
The assailants subsequently moved to Ndi-Ejezie Village, where they killed 14 more residents before proceeding to Ndi-Akunwanta-Uno, where they shot and killed four defenceless natives. The attackers eventually retreated into the Okigwe and adjoining forests, escaping without challenge.
Community leaders from Umunze, Umuchu, and Umualaoma corroborated Intersociety’s account, noting that strange late-night movements of armed herders had been observed for weeks by palm wine tappers, farmers, and other locals. Early warning systems had been reactivated in several Anambra communities after an earlier abduction of two residents triggered the initial manhunt.
Beyond the killings, Intersociety also expressed grave concern over the abduction of six law graduates from Anambra State. The students were kidnapped on July 26 while travelling to the Nigerian Law School campus in Yola, Adamawa State, where academic activities were to resume after a court externship break.
The organisation has demanded their immediate and unconditional release, calling on Anambra State Governor Charles Soludo to urgently collaborate with security agencies in Anambra, Benue, and Taraba States to secure the safe return of the young lawyers.
Intersociety further called for the immediate disbandment of the Ndikeokwu-Uli Vigilante Group in Anambra, accusing it of cross-border killings in Egbuoma community, Oguta LGA, Imo State, where more than ten residents have reportedly been killed since 2022.
The group warned that the continued false attribution of these violent attacks to IPOB serves a dangerous political agenda aimed at criminalising the Igbo struggle for self-determination while ignoring the rising threat of jihadist terrorism in the South-East.
By spotlighting the real perpetrators, Intersociety underscores the urgent need for credible investigations, community intelligence, and collaborative security efforts to tackle the growing menace of armed herders and other violent non-state actors in the region. The organisation insists that justice and accountability, not propaganda, are vital to ending the killings and restoring peace to the affected communities.
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