“They Called Us IPOB and Killed Our Sons”: Inside the Terror of the Ndikeokwu-Uli Vigilante and Their Military Enablers

Awka, Anambra State – October 5, 2025

In the towns and border communities of Amorka (Ihiala, Anambra State), Egbuoma (Oguta, Imo State), Amamputu-Uli (Ihiala, Anambra State), and Ohakpu (Oru West, Imo State), grief has no season. Mothers whisper the names of missing sons; fathers sit in the ruins of burned houses; children grow up afraid of those who are tasked with protecting them.

For years, these communities lived under a reign of terror unleashed by a vigilante gang known as the Ndikeokwu-Uli Vigilante Outfit, a group that, according to the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), operated as a “killer vigilante gang,” colluding with military personnel and bankrolled by “troublesome billionaires” in Ihiala.

“The dreaded Ndikeokwu-Uli Vigilante Outfit colluded with some military personnel and was backed by troublesome billionaires in Ihiala to unleash a reign of terror on communities and indigenes,” the petition reads.

Intersociety’s detailed petition, dated September 30, 2025, addressed to Prince Ken Emeakai, Special Adviser on Community Security to the Anambra Governor, and Dr. Ikioye Orutugu, Anambra State Commissioner of Police, lays bare a campaign of abductions, torture, and executions that has left no fewer than thirty defenceless indigenes dead since 2022.

The outfit’s victims were often falsely branded as members of IPOB, ESN, or “unknown gunmen” , a deadly pretext, Intersociety says, that has been used to justify “the killing and disappearing of more than 20,000 defenceless, unprocessed and untried citizens in Igbo land, South-East alone, since August 2015.”

 

Unmasking the Killers

Intersociety’s investigation began months earlier with its July 25, 2025 petition to the same offices, calling for the dismantling of “killer camps” run by the vigilante group. Within days, the state-owned Agunaechemba Security Outfit (Udo Ga Achi) contacted the rights group, requesting cooperation.

“It gladdened our heart,” Intersociety wrote, “that about four days after receiving our letter, we received calls from the Intelligence Unit of the Agunaechemba Security Outfit seeking our maximum cooperation to ensure a thorough and conclusive investigation.”

That cooperation led to shocking discoveries: new deaths, new torture camps, and the exposure of a network linking vigilantes and soldiers of the 34 Brigade, Obinze (Imo State) and the 302 Army Cantonment, Onitsha (Anambra State).

“By the accounts of freed abductees,” the petition states, “no fewer than twenty more defenceless citizens were abducted and killed outside the law by the Ndikeokwu-Uli Vigilante killer outfit, perpetrated in collusion with some military personnel.”

 

Communities Held Hostage

For the people of Egbuoma and Uli, the years 2022 to 2025 have been a long nightmare. Ten villagers were named among those killed outside the law, among them Chijioke Mgbeobu, Sunday Onyebuchi, Livinus Mmuo, and Uchenna Ahize.

Others were abducted for ransom, sometimes held for weeks or months in crude camps. Millions of naira changed hands in desperate bids of their family members to save their lives.

One mother, the petition recounts, emptied her family’s savings to gather ₦550,000 for the release of her son, Kosarachi Ohajuba, abducted by the vigilante group’s leader, Kingsley Arinzechukwu Iruobi (alias AK-47 De Killer). “Not only that her son, Kosarachi Ohajuba, was not released to her,” the report notes, “but she was also told to sell her husband’s ancestral land to raise and pay the extra ₦3 million demanded.”

In another case, Citizen Achiose Odemgbe was seized on July 29, 2024 and held for over three weeks until his relatives paid ₦3 million to secure his freedom.

 

Burning and Looting with Impunity

The terror did not end with abductions. In Ebenano Village, Egbuoma, no fewer than ten houses were burned or destroyed, including those belonging to Late Clement Ajari and his family, Late Lolo Odalanya Obiwuru, David Ohajuba, and others.

On July 11, 2025, the vigilante gang invaded a busy market junction near Afor-Egbu, opened fire indiscriminately, and looted shops and kiosks. They carted away fuel, beer, mobile phones, engine oil, and even radio players.

“They opened fire, shot indiscriminately, and engaged in looting spree,” Intersociety recorded.

 

Death Camps and Army Collusion

The story of Citizen Kosarachi Ohajuba captures the heart of the horror. Abducted on June 20, 2025, he was held for over two months across six detention and torture sites, including both vigilante and Army camps.

He told Intersociety that he was blindfolded, transported at night, and repeatedly beaten. In one of the vigilante camps, he met eighteen other detainees; by the time he was transferred to an Army camp, only four remained alive, fourteen had been executed.

“Out of the remaining four,” Intersociety reported, “three were freed after their families paid millions of naira ransoms, coordinated by the dreaded outfit with their Nigerian Army personnel collaborators and partners-in-crime.”

Kosarachi was eventually moved to Sokoto under the supervision of an Army officer. He recalled one soldier saying to him, “Kai inyamili, na Sokoto we dey oo!” which translates to “Hey Igbo man, we are in Sokoto!”

From there, he was returned to Onitsha Army Barracks, where his mother, with the help of Comrade Chinenye Nwamebe of Intersociety, tracked him down. He was freed on September 4, 2025, the same day his community erupted into dancing and masquerade celebrations for his survival.

 

Fresh Raids, New Rescues

Agunaechemba’s raids on the group’s Uli camps freed five captives, including Anyaloka Ifeanyi (Ebelato-Amorka), Eluamaeze Chinedu (Umuabuchi, Eziama-Uli), Tochukwu Egwutuoha (Ubahudara-Uli), and Okechukwu Igbo (Ndikeokwu-Uli).

One of those rescued was believed to be an informant with vital knowledge about the group’s operations. But after senior Army officers arrived and demanded custody of him, his whereabouts became unknown.

But even as captives were rescued, the killers fought back. The group reportedly tried to ambush Agunaechemba operatives, and also tricking nearby Army personnel into opening fire on the state squad by falsely labeling them “ESN or IPOB.”

“It was the swift intervention of the Public Relations Officer of Agunaechemba, Comrade Nweke Nweke, that saved the situation,” Intersociety wrote.

 

Power, Money, and Protection

The report points an unwavering finger at “troublesome billionaires” in Ihiala, who it says used the vigilante outfit for “dirty jobs” and shielded them from exposure.

“They stop at nothing in ensuring that they never get implicated or caught,” the petition says. “Culpable members working for them are taken into hiding or flown to neighboring countries where they are kept for months before being brought back to continue their dastardly acts.”

The group’s leadership, all named in the petition include;

Kingsley Arinzechukwu Iruobi, alias AK-47 De Killer (leader)

Oba Ehi, alias 2iC De Killer

Nnamdi ND, alias De Vampire

Okechukwu Obi, alias Bitter Cola

All are accused of being dangerous and are heavily armed with illegal and prohibited firearms’, contrary to Nigeria’s Firearms Act (2004).

 

Justice Demanded

Intersociety commended the Agunaechemba Security Outfit for “good efforts made so far,” but demanded a full purge of all killer camps across Anambra State.

“We strongly demand for total sanitization of the dreaded group’s camps and continuation of the manhunt for the killer-operatives until they are captured, disarmed, blacklisted, dismissed, barred from further security engagements and tried for culpable murders and allied atrocity crimes.”

The rights group also urged authorities to identify victims and pay adequate compensations to their families “to avoid revenge, backlash and lawsuits.”

 

Scars on Humanity

The Intersociety report paints a grim portrait of a Nigerian system where impunity thrives, where men with guns, emboldened by power and connections, decide who lives and who dies.

For the people of Amorka, Egbuoma, Amamputu-Uli, and Ohakpu, justice is not a demand for vengeance; it is a plea for humanity. They live with the scars of what Intersociety calls a “decade-long bloodletting” that has swallowed thousands across the Southeast.

As the petition concludes, the message is clear:

“Having set free communities of Egbuoma, Ohakpu and others from the dreaded outfit’s reign of terror… we thank Agunaechemba for their good efforts and demand the continuation of the manhunt until justice is done.”

 

Some of the burnt properties