Anambra State Governor, Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo, has raised serious concerns over the rising rate of criminal activities allegedly perpetrated by youths of Igbo extraction in the state.
The governor made this revelation during a recent public function where he spoke candidly about the growing trend of internet fraud, drug trafficking, and, more alarmingly, kidnapping.
According to Governor Soludo, available data gathered during his administration over the last three years and three months indicates a worrying pattern.
He stated that out of every 100 individuals arrested for criminal offences, especially those apprehended in forests and bushes for acts such as kidnapping, an overwhelming 99.99 percent were of Igbo origin.
“I have been in office for three years and three months. If we have arrested 100 criminals in the bush — kidnappers and so on — 99.99 percent, I repeat, are Igbo people,” Soludo declared. “You heard me right, 99.99 percent are Igbos. Quote me anywhere.”
The governor did not mince words in expressing his disappointment over how many Igbo youths have fallen into a cycle of criminality, shifting from cybercrime and drug peddling to kidnapping, which he described as the latest “lucrative venture.”
He emphasized that the narrative that lured many young people into the forest under the guise of fighting imaginary killer herdsmen has been used to mask criminal intent.
“That’s part of the propaganda that misled our youths — claiming they were defending their lands from killer herdsmen. But what we have found is that they are now deeply involved in kidnapping for ransom,” he lamented.
“After engaging in Yahoo Yahoo and drug trafficking, the next thing they’ve found profitable is kidnapping.”
Soludo’s comments have stirred discussions across the Southeast, especially within the Igbo community, as he calls for an honest reflection on the current trajectory of many youths in the region.
The governor urged stakeholders, community leaders, and families to take urgent steps to address the moral decay and criminal tendencies increasingly visible among young people in Igboland.