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Human Rights Lawyer Begs Soludo to Tackle Rising Herdsmen Killings, Kidnappings in Anambra
By Olisemeka Obeche
Human Rights Activist and Lawyer, Barrister Ifeanyi Ejiofor has raised fresh alarm over rising violent crimes and killings in parts of South East, especially Anambra State.
Ejiofor, while reacting to the gruesome murder of a young boy at Amansea by suspected Fulani herdsmen, has pleaded with Anambra Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo to take proactive measures to address the crisis.
In a statement dated August 16, 2025 and titled: BLOOD ON OUR FARMLANDS: GOVERNOR SOLUDO MUST CONFRONT ESCALATING HERDSMEN ATTACKS, Ejiofor expressed deep concern over the silent killing spree by Fulani herdsmen in parts of Igboland.
Read the full statement:
“In one of my earlier reflections, I unequivocally condemned the heinous activities of notorious criminal gangs operating within Okigwe, Obinetiti, and Umualaoma, Arondizuogu in Ideato North Local Government Area of Imo State, who brazenly massacre unarmed civilians in broad daylight. I also warned that while our attention is distracted by the loud and reckless operations of these criminal elements, the dreaded Fulani terror herdsmen would silently strike, killing and dispossessing our people without anyone being on guard.
Sadly, that grim prediction is our present reality.
Today in Ala-Igbo, our land bleeds from two wounds. On one hand, criminal elements of Igbo extraction openly kidnap, kill, and destroy, boasting of their evil on social media. On the other hand, Fulani terror herdsmen silently creep into our communities, slaughter our people, maim our farmers, rape our women in their farmlands, and dispossess them of their ancestral heritage; without noise, without videos, without public acknowledgement, but with devastating consequences.
In my previous publication, I specifically raised an alarm about the activities of these terror herdsmen within the Awka North axis of Anambra State, particularly around Ebenebe and Amansea. I gave a verified account of how our mothers, desperate to farm this season, went cap in hand to beg the herders for a mere portion of land to cultivate food, and how their plea was bluntly rejected. I backed this with verifiable evidence, including minutes of the very meeting where these humiliations took place. That publication drew the attention of Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo, the Executive Governor of Anambra State, and was equally brought to the notice of relevant security agencies. Yet, till this day, no decisive action has been taken.
Two days ago, my worst fears were confirmed. In that same axis, Fulani terror herdsmen ambushed a young, promising Igbo boy who had gone to the farm with his younger sister. In a chilling display of savagery, they ordered him to commit the abomination of defiling his sister or face death. The boy, embodying the dignity of our ancestors, refused. For his courage and refusal to desecrate his lineage, he was brutally killed. His traumatised sister, by a stroke of providence, narrowly escaped to tell the story.
This is not just murder. It is genocide in slow motion.
I, therefore, call on Governor Soludo to urgently intervene in the unfolding tragedy within the Ebenebe–Amansea axis, where Fulani terror herdsmen have brazenly seized indigenous farmlands under the watch of the government. We also call on the security agencies to immediately fish out the perpetrators of this barbaric act and restore sanity to our communities.
Let it be known that while criminal gangs openly advertise their atrocities on TikTok and other social media platforms, the Fulani herdsmen are quietly infiltrating every corner of Ala-Igbo; unnoticed, undocumented, and unchallenged.
The security of life and property is the first constitutional obligation of any government. The time has come for Anambra State, and indeed all governments in Ala-Igbo, to take decisive steps to expel these terror herdsmen from our ancestral land.
