Apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has denied claims that it had planned to participate in the inauguration of Nigeria’s president-elect, Bola Tinubu, on 29th May.
The pan-Igbo group made this known in reaction to a media report issued by one Okechukwu Isiguzoro, secretary general of a faction of Ohanaeze, where he claimed that, ‘the Ime-Obi Ohanaeze Ndigbo has mandated that every agitation for the 2023 election should come to an end’.
Mr Isiguzoro also claimed that “the Ime-Obi Ohanaeze Ndigbo has mandated that every agitation for the 2023 election should come to an end,” adding that “Peter Obi is the candidate of the future and that nobody should pick up a fight they can’t finish, against Bola Tinubu.”
Recall that Obi, the Labour Party (LP) candidate in the 2023 presidential election, lost to Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress. He came third with a total of 6,101,533 votes.
Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party also polled 6,984,520 votes.
According to Ohanaeze’s national publicity secretary, Alex Ogbonnia, Ohanaeze while reacting in a statement on Tuesday, said the report claiming that the group had planned to participate in the inauguration of the president-elect did not emanate from them.
He stated that, “The leadership of Ohanaeze was inclined to ignore the current press release by Isiguzoro because we have severally informed the mass media that the secretary general of Ohanaeze Ndigbo is Ambassador Okey Emuchay, and that the said Okechukwu Isiguzoro is a meddlesome interloper who uses the hallowed name of Ohanaeze Ndigbo for narrow interests.
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“We have at various times informed the unsuspecting public to ignore the mischief-makers as impostors, charlatans and media navigators who leech on the invaluable footprints of Ohanaeze Ndigbo to issue press releases for narrow, perverse and illicit pecuniary interests.”
“Ohanaeze Ndigbo does not wax eloquent on partisan politics, except when it becomes exceedingly necessary; and does not in any way begrudge or antagonise any Igbo for choice of political party, personal or group political ambition, but to implicate Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide in personal pecuniary interest is not only unethical, despicable and unscrupulous but in all ramifications, connotes a criminal intent.
“We have severally appealed to the social deviants that the Igbo, all over the world, owe a profound emotional attachment to their apex socio-cultural organisation, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, and as such our sacred identity should not be desecrated on the whims, caprices and immediacies of the uninitiated.”
“Justice Uchenna Mogbo of the High Court of Enugu State further declared that the ‘purported parallel election of the officers of the National Executive Council (NEC) of Ohanaeze conducted in Enugu State at the instance of the defendants is illegal and unconstitutional’.
The statement further stated that, “No person has a right to wake up and issue a far-reaching statement on behalf of Ohanaeze Ndigbo without consultations or a form of consensus.
“Those behind such acts are highly ignorant of the damages they cause to themselves and the Igbo nation on a daily basis. They are reminded that every misconduct against the Igbo pantheon or the Imeobi Ohanaeze has its corresponding inevitable consequences.”
