The apex Igbo social-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, yesterday said its attention had been drawn to a publication currently circulating in the media indicating that Ohanaeze Ndigbo had blasted Atiku and vowed to work against his PDP candidacy in the 2023 polls.
The national publicity secretary of Ohanaeze, Alex Ogbonnia, referred to a release claiming “the Igbo would rise up against Atiku, and that his presidential campaign would be rejected in the South-East” as not a ruse.
Ogbonnia said, ordinarily, Ohanaeze Ndigbo would have ignored the said press release, but said silence in this circumstance will tend to give validity to such fallacy by the unsuspecting public.
He said it was therefore imperative to state that those behind the press release were mischief makers, impostors, charlatans and unscrupulous social climbers who had shamelessly leeched on the invaluable footprints of Ohanaeze Ndigbo to issue press releases for narrow, perverse and illicit pecuniary interests.
“For the avoidance of doubt, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the apex Igbo socio-cultural body, led by Ambassador Professor George Obiozor has not issued any press statement on the candidacy of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
“Ohanaeze awaits with keen interest the full outcome of the ongoing primaries by all the political parties before it can issue a press release with respect to the Igbo position on the 2023 general election,” he said.
He added that the secretary general of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide is Ambassador Okey Emuchay, and any claim to the contrary was devious and irresponsible.
