The Anambra State governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, says security has improved in Anambra, insisting that the “debilitating” Monday sit-at-home is now a thing of the past in the state.
The governor stated this on Tuesday, during his second term inauguration as governor of Anambra State, held at the Dr Alex Ekwueme Square, Awka, adding that “Anambra is on the rise again”.
Soludo also referenced several milestones, including the destruction of criminal camps, recovering about eight local government areas previously under siege and the “mass return” of Anambra indigenes during the 2025 Yuletide season, as evidence of improved security in the state.
He said, “But suffice it to re-echo what Ndi Anambra are saying – ‘Anambra is Back to winning ways’. Some 62 criminal camps have been dismantled and eight local governments previously under total siege have been liberated.
“Anambra had its best Christmas season in decades last December with a mass return and over 10,000 visitors per day to the Solution Fun City, Awka, until 10th January 2026.
“The debilitating Monday sit-at-home is over, and our schools, markets, businesses and public servants are back to work. Ndi Anambra say that ours is now the safest, or at least one of the safest, states in Nigeria.
“The once biggest urban slum in the South-East, Okpoko is now ‘New Haven’; Ekwulobia is a new city; Awka is surely taking off as a befitting state capital; Onitsha and Nnewi are experiencing unprecedented urban regeneration; nearly 3,000 km of roads (both under the zero pothole initiative and brand new roads) plus over 200 km of road dualisation increasingly connect Anambra as one megacity for the 21st century.
“Urban and semi-urban water schemes are back; some 300,000 youths have received digital skills and Anambra One Million Digital Tribe agenda is receiving global recognition (Techies!); Over 15,000 youths have been trained and empowered under our unique ‘1Youth 2Skills’ programme, with 3,000 of them confessing to be new youth millionaires.
“To reinvent the Dr M.I. Okpara palm revolution, we have distributed 2.2 million palm and coconut seedlings to 180,000 households, thereby empowering them for life and laying the foundation for a new palm processing ecosystem.”
The governor explained that with the state’s revolution in education, especially with 8,115 new teachers (recruited competitively from 18 states of Nigeria), upscaling investment in public school infrastructure and technology, especially with the smart schools, and continuing subsidy to mission schools, the Anambra public schools are back to winning ways.
According to him, Anambra schools and teachers (especially public schools) now dominate the annual President’s awards, adding that the state won five and nine President’s awards in 2024 and 2025, respectively—the highest of any state in Nigeria.
“In 2025, an Anambra public school was rated the best primary school in Nigeria while a public secondary school had the overall best results in science subjects.
“Anambra has the lowest out-of-school children in Nigeria (2.9 per cent by UNICEF). Our truly free education from kindergarten to senior secondary school in all public schools has seen enrollment up by nearly 50 per cent,” he added.
He noted that Anambra was “being overrun by a new and fastest-growing religion and philosophy amongst its youth that promised and celebrated wealth without work,” a development, Soludo said, had “implications for criminality.”
Soludo, however, said that “With the enforcement of our Homeland Security Law 2025, ‘Oso Soludo’ is real.
“Hundreds of these dangerous native doctors are on the run. The poster boy of the new phenomenon, ‘Akwa Okuko Tiwara Aki’, has pleaded guilty and been sentenced to a jail term. His massive shrine has been destroyed as well.
“We are on a very serious crusade for ethical and cultural rebirth, going back to the roots of what made us great and unstoppable—values of enterprise and integrity, Akuluouno. That way, we can rescue our youth and secure the future away from drugs, cultism, magic, and criminality,” the governor said.
Soludo and his deputy, Onyekachukwu Ibezim, have been sworn in for a second term in office during a ceremony held at the newly renovated Alex Ekwueme Square in Awka on Tuesday.
Soludo took the oath of office alongside Ibezim at about 11:05 am.
The Chief Judge of the State, Justice Onochie Anyachebelu, administered the oaths of office and allegiance to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to the duo.
