Anambra State Governor, Chukwuma Soludo, has said most of the kidnappers arrested in the state are Igbo.

Mr Soludo stated thus during a town hall meeting with the Anambra State Diaspora Community in the United States on Monday.

He dismissed claims that Fulani herdsmen were behind kidnapping in the state.

He said, “I have been in the office for three years and three months; if we have arrested hundred criminals, kidnappers and so forth, 99.99% are Igbo youths,”

The governor added, “Igbo are the ones kidnapping Igbo, they are the ones killing Igbo. All these camps are Igbo youths. And by the way because I came with the same false narrative. The false narrative they gave us is Oh! the Fulanis, they’re invading our people, and they are now everywhere, they’re waiting for a whistle to be blown and they will take over.”

Mr Soludo, who likened kidnapping to other fraudulent activities such as Yahoo Yahoo, maintained that Igbo youths were deceived to go into the forests to engage in kidnapping for ransom and other forms of criminal activities.

“That’s part of the lies that were put in propaganda that led to Igbo youths to enter bushes and forest. They’re into kidnapping because it is the next lucrative business after “Yahoo Yahoo” and drugs. After drugs and “yahoo yahoo,” the next one they find is kidnapping,” the governor noted.

Mr Soludo’s disclosure came days after some yet-to-be-identified gunmen invaded Ogboji, a community in the Orumba South Local Government Area of Anambra State, killing over 13 people allegedly from Ebonyi State.

The Anambra State government blamed the attack on internal squabbles within the Ebonyi association, adding that it was “not targeted at any particular state or ethnic group. Governor Francis Nwifuru of Ebonyi State vowed to seek justice for the murders of the victims.

Last week, the Anambra State Police Command announced the arrest of a suspect, Sunday Mbanu, in connection with the brutal killing, blaming the attack on common enemies seeking to destabilise the state.