The Amasiri Clan of Afikpo Local Government Area, Ebonyi State, has raised a serious national and international alarm over what it described as state-backed military repression, occupation of ancestral land, and unlawful detention of community leaders.

This revelation was made yesterday at the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) FCT Council in Abuja. Addressing journalists, the clan Spokesperson Princess Joy Idam, accused the Ebonyi State Government of deploying the Nigerian military against a peaceful civilian population on the basis of an unverified allegation,

resulting in mass arrests, displacement of residents, destruction of homes, economic paralysis and the suspension of civil life across Amasiri communities. The clan described the operation as collective punishment that violates the Nigerian Constitution and international human rights standards.

According to the presentation, what began as an allegation linking Amasiri to a murder in neighbouring Oso, Edda Local Government Area, was never subjected to investigation or judicial process. No suspects were identified and no fair hearing was granted, yet the entire community was subjected to military action.

The Amasiri leadership condemned the murder and expressed sympathy with the affected family but rejected what it called the criminalisation of an entire people without evidence.

The clan alleged that following directives attributed to the Ebonyi State Government, all schools in Amasiri were shut down, markets and churches were closed, farming and trading were halted, and residents were forced to flee their homes.

Amasiri indigenes in Abakaliki were allegedly ordered to leave the city, while civil servants of Amasiri origin reportedly received verbal termination notices. Students in tertiary institutions were also said to have been directed to identify themselves by origin, a development the clan described as discriminatory and unconstitutional.