A human rights lawyer, Chidi Odinkalu, has attributed the rising insecurity in the South-East region to cults who he alleged are being sponsored by some politicians.
Odinkalu spoke on Thursday when he appeared as a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today, faulting those attributing the development solely to the now-proscribed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB).
While admitting that the separatist agitations contribute to the insecurity in the region, Odinkalu argued that “the idea that every issue in South-East is an IPOB issue is ridiculous. It’s absolutely not the case.
“Let me tell you this: the biggest single issue, in security terms, confronting the South-East, in my estimation, based on the work I have done on this, is, I regret to disappoint you, not IPOB, it is one word: cults, financed by politicians.
“All right? Now, the cults are the biggest single issue, and you don’t have a clue how terrible the problem of cults in the South-East is at this particular time.”
His comment comes on the back of rising insecurity in some states in the South-East which security agencies and observers have largely attributed to IPOB activities.
Gunmen have in the past few years attacked security posts, killing several officers, maiming scores of citizens and destroying properties in the region.
Odinkalu, a former chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), believes that there might be links between cultism and IPOB.
But he said, “cults financed by politicians, that is the biggest single security challenge confronting the South-East at this time”.
According to him, IPOB cannot thrive in certain communities in the South-East which he says renders the argument that the group is solely responsible for the insecurity in the five states faulty.
“Unquestionably, there is an IPOB issue, but the IPOB issue is overblown,” Odinkalu, a professor of law, told the programme host, Seun Okinbaloye.
