Governor of Anambra State, Charles Soludo, says the violence ravaging Nigeria’s south-east region has no religious undertone, stressing that “Christians are killing Christians.”
Gatekeepers News reports that Soludo made the remark in reaction to former U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to “protect Christians in Nigeria” by launching an attack on the country to “completely wipe out Islamic terrorists.”
Trump’s statement came amid renewed claims by some U.S. lawmakers, international media outlets, and local secessionist groups that Christians in Nigeria are facing genocide.
Speaking during a media chat on Sunday, Soludo said while the United States has the right to express its views, its actions must remain within the limits of international law.
“The U.S. has the right to its own views. But when it comes to what it does, I am sure it must also act within the realm of its own international law,” he said.
The governor, however, dismissed attempts to frame the insecurity in the south-east as religious.
“There is a deeper conversation, our introspection about what goes on in the country. In this part of the world, eastern Nigeria, it is not religious,” Soludo explained.
“People are killing themselves — Christians killing Christians. The people in the bushes are Emmanuel, Peter, and John, all Christian names, and they have maimed and killed thousands of our youths. It has nothing to do with religion.”
He noted that the south-east is overwhelmingly Christian, making it inaccurate to portray the violence as a clash between faiths.
“In this part of the country, we are 95 percent Christians, and around the south-east are Christians. The people in the bushes killing people bear Christian names,” he said.
Soludo called for deeper reflection and dialogue as the only sustainable way to end the ongoing violence.
“It is wider than the categorisation of Christians and Muslims. Nigeria will overcome, and it will end in conversation,” he added.
