99.9% of criminals terrorising South-East are Igbos, not Fulani — Soludo

Governor of Anambra State, Prof. Charles Soludo, has said that the overwhelming majority of criminals behind violence and insecurity in Nigeria’s South-East are of Igbo origin—not Fulani, as widely claimed.

Speaking at a town hall meeting with Anambra indigenes in Maryland, USA, Soludo stated that 99.9 percent of those arrested for terrorism, kidnapping, and related crimes in the region are Igbos.

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

He described those hiding in forests and claiming to be defending the region as “homegrown criminals feeding fat on blood money.”

“These so-called liberators claim to protect people from Fulani herdsmen, but no one asks how they survive in the forest for months—who feeds them, who funds them?” Soludo questioned.

He urged the diaspora community to challenge the false narratives and confront the real sources of insecurity affecting the region.

However, his remarks have drawn sharp criticism from the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), a civil rights group, which countered the governor’s claims. The group insisted that armed herdsmen are indeed present in the region’s forests and remain a security threat.

Intersociety called for a more balanced and evidence-based approach to addressing the complex security situation in the South-East.