Chidi Odinkalu has accused politicians of fuelling insecurity in the South East by funding violent cult groups.
He said cultism, not IPOB, now poses the biggest security threat in the region.
Human rights lawyer and public affairs analyst, Chidi Odinkalu, has alleged that politicians are largely responsible for the growing insecurity in Nigeria’s South East region, claiming they fund cult groups that operate across the area.
Odinkalu made the assertion on Thursday, October 23, during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
He criticized the popular narrative that blames the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) for every act of violence in the region, saying such assumptions oversimplify the real problem.
While acknowledging that separatist agitations have contributed to instability, Odinkalu argued that they are not the primary cause of the widespread insecurity witnessed in recent years.
According to him, the real threat comes from well-armed cult gangs that have been secretly sponsored by political actors for personal or electoral gains. He explained that these groups have grown increasingly violent and influential, posing a major danger to community safety.
Odinkalu said his research shows that cultism, not IPOB, is the dominant security challenge in the region. He described the scale of the problem as deeply alarming, warning that the situation could worsen if the political class continues to fund such groups.
