Apex Igbo socio-cultural organization, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has declared that since former President Muhammadu Buhari left office and following his demise in 2025, the South-East region has not recorded any incident of Fulani herdsmen attacks.
Ohanaeze said the sudden and remarkable decline in the activities of suspected Fulani herdsmen militias in the South-East region is nothing short of a miracle, one that has provided conclusive evidence that these groups were, in all likelihood, a state-sponsored terrorist arm during the administration of the late former President Muhammadu Buhari, deployed with the sinister intent of destabilizing Southern Nigeria, particularly the South-East.
It stated that for over six long and harrowing years, these so-called Fulani herdsmen militias unleashed a reign of terror on the South-East, wantonly destroying farmlands and turning the fertile soil of the Igbo heartland into wastelands.
According to the pan-Igbo group, they occupied forests, using them as bases for their heinous acts, and callously sacked numerous villages, leaving behind a trail of destruction, grief, and displacement.
In a statement issued on Sunday by the factional Deputy President-General, Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro, and Chief Thompson Ohia, National Spokesperson, Ohanaeze stated that the human cost of this terror is incalculable, with over 2,960 innocent Igbos losing their lives and many more sustaining injuries.
“Ohanaeze Ndigbo acknowledges the significant roles played by the Federal Government and the South-East governors in combating the security challenges that plagued the region.
“However, it cannot be ignored that the most decisive factor in ending this reign of terror was the death of former President Muhammadu Buhari in 2025. Immediately after his passing, there was a perceptible and dramatic reduction in the activities of the Fulani herdsmen militia.
“This undeniable sequence of events has reaffirmed the long-held suspicions of the Igbo people that these militias were state-funded under Buhari’s watch.
“The ‘Fulanization Agenda’ promoted during Buhari’s tenure (2015–2023) was a clear manifestation of a partisan and divisive policy that eroded the trust and confidence of Ndigbo in the APC-led Federal Government.
“The Igbo people endured great suffering during this period, with their safety and livelihoods constantly under threat.
“Thankfully, the current APC-led Federal Government under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has taken remarkable steps to restore the trust of the Igbo people.
“There has been a remarkable improvement in security across the region. The Igbo can now sleep more soundly at night, free from the constant fear of attack that had become a norm for far too long.
“President Tinubu’s administration has been instrumental in turning the once-dire infrastructure deficits of the South-East into a promising landscape of growth and accessibility.
“The improvement in road networks and other key infrastructure projects is a testament to his commitment to the region.
“As President Bola Ahmed Tinubu celebrates his 74th birthday anniversary, Ohanaeze Ndigbo would like to take this opportunity to extend heartfelt birthday wishes and express our deepest gratitude.”
The organisation noted that Ndigbo remains indebted to him for bringing about the much-needed transformation in the South-East, turning a region marred by insecurity and underdevelopment into a safe and prosperous environment.
A coalition of Igbo elders has thrown its weight behind the creation of Anioma State, framing the long-running demand as an overdue correction to a federal structure they say has marginalised a people whose identity, language and history place them firmly within the Igbo nation despite decades of administrative separation.
The United Igbo Elders Council, UNIEC Worldwide, issued a statement this week calling the proposed state not a political favour but what it described as a right long denied — and warning the Tinubu administration that history would not excuse procedural delay when the moral and legislative foundations for action were already in place.
“The creation of Anioma State is a litmus test of Nigeria’s sincerity about justice, equity, and true federalism,” the council said in a statement signed by its Director General, Justice Alpha Ikpeama, and National Director of Media and Publicity, Professor Obasi Igwe. “To ignore this demand any longer is to perpetuate a quiet injustice.”
The statement arrives as the National Assembly’s engagement with the Anioma question has gained fresh momentum, driven in part by Senate President Godswill Akpabio and with particular force from Senator Ned Nwoko, whose advocacy for the new state has given the legislative conversation an urgency it previously lacked. UNIEC described the reported overwhelming senatorial backing as something deeper than procedural consensus — a signal, it said, of national awakening rather than routine constitutional exercise.
The case for Anioma State rests on a grievance that has accumulated across decades. The Anioma people — occupying the western bank of the Niger River in what is currently Delta State — identify culturally, linguistically and historically with the Igbo, yet have found themselves administered within a state whose dominant identity, politics and resource flows have not consistently served their developmental interests. Their demand for a distinct federating unit is not new. What appears to have changed is the legislative atmosphere around it.
UNIEC was careful to frame the demand in terms that address the standard objections to state creation exercises in Nigeria, where the multiplication of states has often been criticised as a patronage mechanism rather than a genuine response to administrative need. The elders argued that the Anioma case is categorically different — rooted in identity and structural equity rather than political calculation. “Their call for a distinct federating unit is not rooted in division, but in dignity,” the statement said. “Not in exclusion, but in inclusion.”
Read also: President Tinubu Supports Creation Of Anioma State – Ned Nwoko
The proposed configuration would designate Asaba as the capital of the new Anioma State while Warri would serve as capital of a restructured Delta State. UNIEC described the arrangement as strategically sound and symbolically meaningful — Asaba representing the cultural and political heartbeat of Anioma identity, Warri reflecting industrial and economic capacity with the infrastructure to sustain administrative leadership.
The council rejected any framing of the split as zero-sum, arguing instead that the arrangement models precisely the balance between identity and efficiency that Nigerian federalism has consistently struggled to achieve.
The danger of delay, the statement argued, is not merely administrative but psychological and political. Nigeria has a documented pattern of acknowledging legitimate demands for restructuring and then routing them into committees, consultations and constitutional processes that stretch indefinitely without resolution. Each iteration of that pattern, UNIEC said, deepens distrust and reinforces the perception that some communities must perpetually negotiate for recognition that others simply inherit. “Every delay deepens distrust. Every hesitation reinforces the perception that some regions must perpetually negotiate for recognition, while others take it for granted.”
