Governor Charles Soludo says Fulani bandits are not responsible for the maiming and killing Anambra residents, insisting the violent attacks in the state “is 100 per cent Igbos on Igbos.”

Mr Soludo said it was a “hoax” claiming that bandits were invading the South-East, particularly Anambra.

“Let me be clear about it: 100 per cent of the people we have caught are Igbos,” Mr Soludo declared in a Channels TV interview on Sunday night. “It is (a) hoax that somebody is invading from somewhere. It is 100 per cent Igbos on Igbos. That is the fact.”

According to the governor, Igbos from other South-East states are infiltrating Anambra to wreak havoc.

“Anambra is like a cell. We receive a proportionate share of the influx of people from other South-East states and other parts of Nigeria in the South-East,” Mr Soludo explained. “In fact, the first set of people we caught were 100 per cent Igbos from other South-East states and none from Anambra.”

The governor also mentioned that his administration would treat the Igbo bandits as criminals.

“We are dealing with them. For us, there is no distinction whether they are from Anambra or not from Anambra,” he stressed. “Anybody in a camp, anybody in a bush with a gun, we treat as a criminal.”  

On September 11, Ifeanyi Ubah (senator representing YPP-Anambra South)’s convoy was attacked by gunmen, killing his personal and security aides.

Mr Ubah’s convoy was attacked around the Nkwo Enugwu-Ukwu Market axis of Njikoka local government area of Anambra on its way to Nnewi, his country home. It was gathered that the gunmen opened fire on the convoy and left many members of the convoy dead, including other persons at the scene of the incident.

Last Wednesday, President Muhammadu Buhari described as “barbaric and condemnable” the violent attack on the senator’s convoy. 

“We are deeply concerned about the activities of armed groups in the region and in other parts of the country,” said Mr Buhari.