Terrorists killing in South East are Igbo, not Fulani, Gov Soludo reveals

By KEMI KASUMU and OUR REPORTER

“Tell me how Governor Soludo is shielding jihadist herdsmen in what he said. Our people should be careful about how they release information they cannot substantiate to the public in an already fragile society like Nigeria. Fulani herdsmen are in the bushes, yes, but doing what? They are doing their business that they know best how to do for God’s sake,” said the second respondent.

Truth about insecurity in Southern Nigeria, especially in the South East region, has eventually been officially confirmed.

This was as Governor of Anambra State, Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo, revealed in far away United States of America that criminals terrorising the South East are never the Fulani people his South Easterners wrongly blamed but Igbo indigenes.

The former Governor of the Central of Nigeria (CBN) revealed this unassailable truth while addressing Anambra indigenes resident in the US during his ongoing visit to the Donald Trump’s country.

This revelation has not been gone down well with some Igbo people, but the Governor has continued to stand his ground despite knowing that an election is around the corner for him, thus presenting Soludo as an uncommon politician that would not bend the truth for any reason because of political gains.

There have been the notion that most of the terrorist activities taking place in the South East were done by those the Igbo people tend to describe as Fulani terrorists living inside the bushes in the geopolitical zone and disguising as herdsmen with intent to relaunch “Islamic jihad”, conquer and take over their land.

Such claims in fellow zones of South West and South South in the past had been revealed to be false as police reports proved wrong the claims that high profiling killings involving a prince returning to his base in America, which occurred in Edo State few years back, and those kidnapping involving oil magnate as victims in a Ekiti State.

It will be recalled how 16 local hunters going home in Kano for Sallah festival were accosted, tied to the trees and killed through despicable act of jungle justice in Imo State by Igbo, who took the law into their own hands concluding that the Kano indigenes were terrorists, without evidence.

But addressing indigenes of Anambra in the US, during a town hall meeting in Maryland, the governor insisted that 99.99 percent of criminals arrested in Anambra were not Fulani, but Igbo.

“The so-called liberators hiding in the forests are homegrown criminals feeding fat on blood money. They come under the guise that they are the ones protecting you from Fulani herdsmen.

“They live in the bushes for months, but no one has ever asked how these so-called liberators survive in the forest. They have to feed, who is paying for their services, don’t they have needs?

“In my three years and three months in office, 99.99% of the kidnappers and other criminals we’ve arrested are Igbo. Let’s stop the lies. Igbo are kidnapping and killing fellow Igbo, not Fulani.”

However, a rights group, International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), has countered the governor, insisting that herdsmen were actually in the bushes in the zone.

He accused Soludo’s administration of “shielding Jihadist herdsmen since 2022 and dangerously dragging Anambra State into federal government’s (Fulani) Ranching compliant State and sitting the state on a keg of jihadist gunpowder.”

In a press statement by the Board of Trustees Chairman of the group, Mr Emeka Umeagbalasi, it said, “We’re strongly puncturing Governor Charles Soludo’s Maryland speech in USA, exonerating Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen in Anambra’s Forest and Farmland Insecurity.”

Umeagbalasi added that some communities in Awka South, Awka North, Oyi, Ayamelum, Orumba South and North, Dunukofia, all have camps habited by Fulani terrorists herdsmen.

“The state government has also severally been found to have joined conventional security establishments in the state and beyond in shielding these jihadists and shifting blames over their atrocities to militant IPOB or ESN or Unknown Gunmen.”

When asked to comment on claim that herdsmen are in the bushes of South East terrorizing, another respondent, who refused to identify himself for fear of being attacked, said:

“Come again. Are you kidding me? Tell me how Governor Soludo is shielding jihadist herdsmen in what he said. Our people should be careful about how they release information they cannot substantiate to the public in an already fragile society like Nigeria. Fulani herdsmen are in the bushes, yes, but doing what? They are doing their business that they know best how to do for God’s sake.

“Where do you expect cows’ herders to be, if not largely in the bushes since there are no ranches provided yet for them? These guys talking, have they been truthful enough to tell the world the countless number of innocent Fulani people and cows they have killed in the South East bushes just for the cheer reason of hate?

“Do they ever remember that their own fellow Igbo people are also in Northern society doing businesses? If you say they should find ranches by themselves, I can tell you that you did not allow government to succeed in resolving this issue as you said the loan government wanted to give to them should not be given.

“But you jumped up when a Fulani president in Buhari was giving bailouts to you to advance your own businesses. What made you entitle to bailout doing business that should not apply to the Fulani people in herding or cattle rearing business? Are they not Nigerians? Much as you live America as your Lord and savior, its Department of State in recent times had cleared this issue of Fulani saying they are the most people group in Nigeria but you refuse to accept. Why, if not hate?”, he asked.