How ESN saved my family from Fulani kidnappers ~ by Ijeoma Chinonyerem
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My dad, my sister and our driver travelled to our state (Imo state) the other day. On their way back my sister called me.
She said: “I don’t want you to panic but Fulani herdsmen blocked the road and are shooting sporadically.
“We all ran out of our car into the bush waiting for the shooting to stop.
“People are saying they are kidnapping in front, hence the shooting”.
“All the motorists plying that road had to abandon their vehicles and run into the bush pending when the gunfire ceased.”
Ah! My chest sank. I was cooking when she called. I wanted to go crazy. I was imagining my dad and my sister running for cover.
She later told me that a vigilante group called ESN (Eastern Security Network) came with Hilux vehicles and buses and guns to fire back at them and clear the herdsmen.
I didn’t even know such a group existed till yesterday. They engaged them and the road cleared. They now urged people to go back into their vehicles and continue their journey.
When my family got to the spot where the Fulani people laid siege, they saw a burnt army van. And several empty cars with their owners nowhere to be found.
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My questions started:
- What was an army van doing there since no army person came there?
- Did the fulani herdsmen “borrow” the army van to carry out their operation?
- Is the army somehow in on this?
- Do the empty cars belong to motorists who left their vehicles to hide for cover or to people the Fulani herdsmen kidnapped?
- Why weren’t the army or police there to protect the citizens? It had to be a combat between a vigilante group and terrorists. No army, no police!
- Why is Hope Uzodimma (Imo State Governor) so comfortable with the heavy infiltration of herdsmen in his state? The insecurity in Imo state is the worst in the east. Uzodimma is just growing fatter and wearing designer watches.
I’m grateful they got back to Enugu safely. In a blink of an eye, Nigeria fit happen to you. Ahapu ihe anako kowa ihe ozo.
Thank God for ESN. Ya gaziere unu.
