•Punctures Governor’s USA speech exonerating jihadist Fulani herdsmen in Anambra’s forest/farmland insecurity

The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), Nigeria’s leading research and investigative advocacy group, on Tuesday faulted Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo’s recent speech in Maryland, USA, exonerating Jihadist Fulani herdsmen in Anambra’s forest and farmland insecurity. Soludo had during his ongoing trip to the USA claimed that “out of 99.5% of those arrested by his Government in various camps belonging to kidnappers across the state, none is a member of the killer herdsmen”. He also claimed that “all the reports about (Jihadist) Fulani herdsmen occupying different forest locations across the state are false narratives”. The Anambra Governor made the statement yesterday evening, Monday, July 7, 2025.

However, Intersociety punctured Soludo’s claims in a statement issued this Tuesday afternoon in Onitsha, Eastern Nigeria, signed by the Lead-Researcher/Head, Emeka Umeagbalasi; Human Rights Lawyer/Head, Democracy and Good Governance, Chinwe Umeche, Esquire; and Human Rights Lawyer/Head, Campaign and Publicity, Chidinma Udegbunam, Esquire. The rights group accused Soludo’s government of shielding Jihadist herdsmen, consequently making Anambra to sit “on a keg of jihadist gunpowder.”

Intersociety said in the statement: “Inasmuch as Gov Charles Chukwuma Soludo is commendably “a bad road network fixing and free primary and secondary school education providing Gov” who has greater chance of winning the November 8, 2025 Anambra Governorship Election; the Gov is gravely endangering security and safety of the State and her citizens, especially their present and future security and safety. The above is going by his Government’s steady kid gloves and lukewarm attitudes or approaches to Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and their genocidal activities across the State since the inception of his Administration on March 17, 2022. The above is to the extent that it is not only that Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen are an integral part of the Anambra State Forest and Farmland insecurity and other violence-generated unsafe conditions, perpetrating not less than 30% of violent crimes across the State but also the Government of Anambra State under Prof Charles Chukwuma Soludo as Governor has steadily been shielding Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and their genocidal activities across the State since 2022. The worst and most dangerous part of it is that the Prof Charles Chukwuma Soludo led Government of Anambra State has dragged the State into Nigeria’s Federal Government (Fulani Cattle) Ranching”; thereby making the State the newest “South-East Fulani RUGA or Ranching State”. Anambra State, as a result, now sits on a keg of jihadist gunpowder, with far-reaching consequences and grave dangers of the State’s Christians and Traditional Institutions including Igbo Cultural Heritage facing total annihilation in the next 50 years or by the Year 2075.

“For clarity and laying the facts on the ground, we at Intersociety are inviting the general public particularly the good citizens and indigenes of Anambra State to use sound logic and critical thinking to critically study the link to the Punch Newspaper’s Special Investigative Report of Monday, June 23, 2025; titled: “Pastoral Crisis: 11 States (including Anambra State) Embrace FG Ranching Plan As Killings Surge”; in which the Anambra State Commissioner for Information boldly confirmed the State as “having become a Fulani Cattle Ranching designated State”. This, the State did blindly, selfishly and strongly condemnably, turning blind eyes to the ongoing ceaseless massacre of defenseless Christians in Benue and Plateau States-where the Jihadist Herdsmen were allowed to settle some years ago following the so called “Peace and Peaceful Co-existence Agreement”; only for them to turn their settlements into anti-Christian terror camps. The link to the referenced Punch Newspaper’s Special Investigative Report of June 23, 2025 is here: https://punchng.com/pastoral-crisis-11-states-embrace-fg-ranching-plan-as-killings-surge/. It is our strong estimation that about 60% or more, of forest camps belonging to violent criminals across the State including about 99% belonging to Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen are yet to be accessed or raided by security forces.

“Contrary to the strongly questionable position of Gov Charles Chukwuma Soludo in faraway United States, his Administration seems to have perpetually lived in false denial over the menace of the Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen across the State. His assertion that “none of the 99.5% of those arrested in Anambra State is a member of killer Herdsmen” is vexatious and does not hold any water, especially against the backdrop of the fact that not less than 90% of intelligence briefing supplied to him as Anambra Gov by conventional security and intelligence agencies and their operators including police, secret police and military are grossly biased, partisan, unscientific and unverifiable. It is not only that there was a strong accusation in June 2021 against Governor Soludo’s immediate past Commissioner for Homeland Security, accusing him of “land procurement for the Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and their Patrons in some communities across the State including some communities in Awka South, Awka North, Oyi, Ayamelum, Orumba South and North, Dunukofia, etc.” The worse of it is that the State Government grossly lacks crime and intelligence detective devices or technological equipment and skills including drones and advanced secret cameras. 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”.

“A clear case in point was the News-Band Report of April 23, 2024, which reported how a family of three: wife, husband and maid were abducted by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and taken into Ukwulu Forest where they were held captive and raped for three days until payment of N15m ransom was made leading to their release. The family had returned home to Ukwulu in Dunukofia LGA of Anambra State for their daughter’s marriage, during which they were waylaid by the Jihadists and freed after three days of captivity and rape on payment of N15m ransom by their son-in-law. The captive three family members also suffered bruises in their respective private parts including the husband’s anus inflicted with several rape wounds. A certain Commissioner in Gov Soludo’s Cabinet was alerted immediately and an SOS was sent to the Gov through his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Christian Aburime, who turned around and swiftly a statement, describing the abducted and freed Family’s SOS and their ordeal as “another concocted narrative, void of credibility and mischievously syndicated to paint a scenario of insecurity within the peaceful State”.”