My case against Ohanaeze Ndigbo, by Obiano

ANAMBRA State Governor Willie Obiano yesterday explained his grouse about the apex Igbo socio-political organisation – the Ohanaeze Ndigbo.

He said his disagreement with the group was not over the controversial endorsement of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate Atiku Abubarka and his deputy Peter Obi.

The governor said it was because of the ingratitude the body showed to Nigeria’s first President the late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, in whose honour a Mausoleum was inaugurated by President Muhammadu Buhari last Wednesday.

Ohanaeze Ndigbo had no representation at the inauguration in Onitsha. Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyawu, who was at the Nike Lake Hotel, Enugu, where the controversial endorsement of the Atiku/Obi ticket took place, said the group boycotted the event because there was no invitation from the government.

Speaking with reporters in Awka yesterday, Obiano said Zik made Nnia Nwodo, who gave birth to the current Ohanaeze Ndigbo’s President-General, despite his lack of education in those days.

Besides, the governor said that the late Azikiwe was the only patron of Ohaneze till date and should have been respected by the group on a day he was being honoured by President Buhari in Onitsha, Anambra State.

Obiano, who was represented by his Commissioner for Information & Strategy, C-Don Adinuba, said there was a motive behind what some of those Ohanaeze chieftains did.

Furthermore, he said the meeting where such hasty decision of endorsing some candidates took place in Enugu was a Kangaroo, brigandage and ‘419’.

This, according to him, was because, by the time the Anambra State contingent and that of other states had not arrived at the venue, the people who carried out the endorsement had dispersed.

Obiano said: “What Nwodo and his group did was an act of ingratitude to Zik of Africa, who made his father a minister from Nsukka those days.