Since the assumption of office, the Anambra State Governor Chukwuma Soludo has had to contend with an armed gang who had created a new operational camp in the Unubi bush, a town in the Nnewi South local government area of Anambra State. The shooters made that axis their haven and set up similar camps inside Orsumoghu and Lulu forests; motorists abandoned the route after many people had either been kidnapped or killed.
The governor was forced to impose a curfew on the entire Anambra South senatorial zone and banned the use of motorcycles at certain times in the area.
The governor, seriously challenged by the shooters, swore never to surrender the state to them, insisting that his administration must reclaim and make Anambra a livable condition.
In the words of the governor arccoding to vanguard, majority of the unknown gunmen are Igbo. “Let us be very clear: These criminals causing mayhem in Anambra are Igbos (dominantly from other South East states) whose real objective is lucrative criminality and foisting their idolatrous religion on the region. Why is it that everywhere they gather and in every camp they operate, there is a deity/idol to which they routinely offer blood in sacrifice? Igbo are known for their enterprise but these criminals are bent on killing Ndigbo businesses.
“The people of the South East, especially Anambra, are predominantly Christians. But with this gang, idolatry is back with vengeance. They forcefully try to convert people, especially the young ones to idolatry by initiating them into cults, swearing oaths to their deities, with the promise of invincibility. Consequently, these youths join them as members and informants.
“Spilling of the blood of the innocent is considered an abomination by our culture and by our Christian religion. We understand that they kill and harvest human organs for rituals and human sacrifice in their so called camps.
“With their new religion of idolatry and deadly weapons which they use to kill at random, they have tried to create a culture of fear and silence. More recently, the people have begun to question their propaganda, motive and means and they know that they have lost the sympathy of the people. That explains why they desperately tried to ignite a national inter-ethnic crisis by killing some innocent northerners who have lived peacefully in our state for decades to divert attention from their criminality and then seek to re-brand themselves as “defenders of the people.” They have failed, and would continue to fail.”
