Igbo group accuses Soludo of undermining Igbo

No fewer than 20 gunmen, yesterday, for the second time this year, stormed Aguata Local Council, where the Anambra State Governor, Chukwuma Soludo, hails from.
 
The hoodlums, on arrival, took over Ekwulobia Community, raining bullets in all directions, killing and injuring many citizens in the wake. Ekwulobia is the neighbouring Community to Isuofia, Soludo’s home.
 
About four people, according to eyewitnesses, were reportedly killed instantly, while many were critically injured. It was also revealed that the gunmen, on arrival, took position atop the yet-to-be completed new Ekwulobia flyover/bridge.
 
They reportedly launched attacks on the Joint Security Patrol Team of the police and the army, as well as members of the State Homeland Security Team in the area, otherwise known as “Udo Gachi”.
 
They set ablaze one security vehicle belonging to the joint security task forces. A witness noted: “There was confusion everywhere and people, most of them workers going to work and traders coming from their homes to open their shops, scampered in search of safety.

“About four deaths were already recorded, and many others were injured.” The Anambra Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr Tochukwu Ikenga, a Superintendent of Police, claimed that only two civilian casualties were recorded.
 
The PPRO said the hoodlums burnt a security vehicle, but had been contained. He noted that the security agents demobilised one of them, recovered two rifles – one pump action gun and one AK-47. He stated that items recovered included four vehicles with which the hoodlums came.

MEANWHILE, an Igbo group, World Igbo National Union (WINU), has accused Soludo of aligning with external political actors to undermine Igbo people.
It urged the governor to reverse his “misguided stance” and protect Igbo communities rather than pander to political advantages at any given opportunity.
 
Soludo, during a town hall meeting with Anambra residents in the United States of America (U.S.A), had claimed that 99.99 per cent of criminals arrested in Anambra State were not Fulani but Igbo, adding that armed criminals illegally occupying forests were Igbo.
 
Condemning the stance, WINU, in a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Ifeanyi Uwakwa, urged him to make public his evidence to convince the world about his claim.

The group said: “It is surprising that the Anambra State Governor would deliberately stand outside the homeland of Igbo land to make such a bogus and flattering claim that 99.9 per cent of armed criminals illegally occupying our forest are Igbo people. 
 
It demanded that the governor tenders his evidence that support his U.S.A speech or tender a public apology for his insensitive and callous claims made just to appease his political sponsors, Fulani herdsmen and those dubious, corrupt elements in Nigeria.”