Anambra State Governor Chukwuma Soludo has warned that criminals operating in forest enclaves of southeastern Nigeria often carry Christian names, a reminder, he said, that the violence transcends religious labels.
Speaking during a media chat in Awka, Soludo said: “People are killing themselves, Christians killing Christians … the people in the bushes are Emmanuel, Peter, John … they have maimed and killed thousands of our youths — it has nothing to do with religion.”
He argued that labeling the crisis as religiously driven misses “a deeper societal problem” and cautioned against framing insecurity along faith lines in a region where Christians are the majority. In his words: “In this part of the country, we are 95 per cent Christians … the people in the bushes killing people bear Christian names; it is wider than the categorisation of Christians, Muslims.”
The governor also disclosed plans to strengthen local security architecture. He announced a forthcoming revalidation and retraining of the Anambra Vigilante Group, and the recruitment of forest guards drawn from vigilante ranks to protect vulnerable woodland areas used as hideouts.
Soludo identified intertwined security threats — including kidnapping, armed robbery, cultism, drug abuse, and touting — which he said compound one another and challenge enforcement responses.
He described criminals as familiar faces, saying: “These criminals are our brothers, our sisters, our husbands, our relations, and our friends. They are not spirits. They live among us, and we know them.”
The governor pledged to launch Operation Udo Ga-Achị, a renewed security intervention, vowing to expand and intensify efforts to reclaim sieged local government areas and forest regions.
