From Propaganda to Reality: Soludo Links Igbo Youths to Kidnappings

  Anambra State Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Charles Soludo, has revealed that nearly all suspected kidnappers and criminals arrested in the sta...

 

Anambra State Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Charles Soludo, has revealed that nearly all suspected kidnappers and criminals arrested in the state over the past three years are of Igbo origin, not Fulani as widely believed.

Speaking during a town hall meeting with Anambra indigenes in the diaspora at Metro Points Hotel, New Carrollton, Maryland, USA, Soludo addressed the prevailing misconception that Fulani herders were primarily responsible for insecurity in the South-East.

“I have been in office for three years and three months. If we’ve arrested 100 kidnappers and criminals, 99.99% of them are Igbo youths,” the governor said.

He described the earlier belief that Fulani were behind most of the insecurity as a “false narrative” that unfortunately misled many Igbo youths into crime.

“That was part of the propaganda — that Fulanis were behind the violence. But it turned out to be untrue. That lie created a new criminal enterprise. Our youths began to see kidnapping as the next lucrative business after internet fraud and drug trafficking,” he added.

Soludo emphasized that the majority of criminal camps dismantled by security operatives in Anambra were run by Igbos, stating clearly: “Igbos are the ones kidnapping Igbos.”

He urged Anambra indigenes abroad to contribute to the development of their homeland by investing their time, skills, and resources.

“Even people from other states now call it the ‘Anambra job’. They go to their villages, buy motorcycles, and come here to join the business. They are trained in the bush and when arrested, they claim it's the Fulanis,” he said.

The governor noted that he too initially believed the invasion narrative. “I came in with that same false belief — that the Fulanis were invading our land and waiting for a signal to strike. So we thought we were the liberators and went into the bush to drive them out.”

“But no one paused to ask how those so-called liberators survive in the forest for months — how do they eat, how do they fund themselves?”

“I want to be quoted correctly,” Soludo emphasized. “99.99% of all criminals we have arrested in Anambra are Igbos. All the camps we’ve discovered and destroyed were operated by our own people.”

— TheCable