The Federal High Court sitting in Abakaliki on Tuesday disbanded the South-East security outfit Ebubeagu in Ebonyi State.
According to the court, the disbandment of the security outfit was as a result of human rights abuses, extortions, illegal arrests and use of fire arms.
The South Eastern regional security outfit called Ebubeagu on 12th April 2021. This latter group came after long public pressure from the citizens due to the rising insecurity.
The operations of these regional networks of security to support policing in their various zones attracts different levels of legitimation from the population in their operational bases.
At the time the Ebubeagu security outfit was launched, ESN was already confronting the violent herdsmen in different parts of the South East. IPOB in question had declared that it was not going to coexist with Ebubeagu in the region. Besides, the operations of Ebubeagu have been trailed by reports of rights abuses, torture and extra-judicial killings. In Ebonyi State, it was reported that the security outfit is used to harassment of perceived enemies of the State Government. In Imo State, several deaths have been linked to Ebubeagu. Also, the widespread misgiving about the security outfit led to an allegation that they overlapped into Oba in Anambra State recently to attack a prominent member of the community. Overall, Ebubeagu tends not to command the required goodwill of a localised security outfit to support security in the South East.