By Dennis Agbo ENUGU-
PRESIDENT General of Ohanaeze
Ndigbo, Chief Nnia Nwodo has distanced the apex Igbo socio-cultural
organization from statements credited to the group’s President in Lagos,
Solomon Ogbonna that Ndigbo should vote for a particular candidate in
Lagos governorship election on Saturday.
Nwodo in a video, on
Monday, washed the hands of Ohanaeze from Ogbonna’s statement and
described it as a personal opinion which no Igbo in Lagos should take
seriously. He also encouraged the Igbo residing in Lagos to defy the
violence of last presidential election in the commercial city and come
out once again to cast their votes without fear of intimidation.
In a video conducted in Igbo language and personally circulated to
Vanguard, Nwodo said “On the coming governorship and state assembly
elections, Ohanaeze never met to tell Ndigbo where to vote but what
Imeobi Ohanaeze said was that one thing you need to have at the back of
your mind is that whoever you want to vote for should be one who agrees
on restructuring so that whenever you representative is asked to vote,
he will say that he agrees on restructuring of the country; so that if a
governor is called upon to call a meeting for restructuring, he would
agree to summon such meeting.
It is such people you should vote
for. In Igboland, it’s not difficult to find such people. One who has
done well, let him so for second term. “For the Igbo leaving outside our
land, nobody should scare you people. We all have equal rights whether
you reside in Igboland or in diaspora.
I have been most
disturbed by news from Lagos and I want to tell our people residing in
Lagos that what Solomon Ogbonna, the Ohanaeze President in Lagos, said
was his personal opinion and was never approved by Ohanaeze Ndigbo. “We
never asked him to nominate who to vote for in Lagos. What he said was
in bad faith and nobody should listen to him.
Both Jim Agbaje
and Sanwo-Olu are contestants and they are all good people and you
should vote for whoever you prefer but be mindful of who is interested
in restructuring.
“Our people that were dispersed in Lagos and
others wounded, check if any of them has any hand in it. Don’t mind
those intimidating you that you would be heavily taxed, there are
lawyers in Nigeria.” Nwodo congratulated Ndigbo for their massive turn
out during the last presidential election which he said was one of a
kind since the conduct of elections in Nigeria.
“You have seen
how it went. Since we started conduct of elections in Nigeria, one had
been as the February 23 2019 presidential and national assembly
elections. The declared results were not what were obtained in the
polls. There are those that did not use card readers while some card
readers did not perform at all.
There were incidences of ballot
box snatches with some peoples votes burnt. “But I have come to tell you
to be satisfied because you have shown them how mighty we are. Now they
have known our strength, so don’t be annoyed because we have shown that
our votes are weapons for politics.
“You should also be
satisfied that what I told you people about Ohanaeze discussion with
PANDAF, the Afenifere and the Middle belt forum on restructuring is
real. You would have understood from the votes of those who want
restructuring in Nigeria that our votes went in one direction. Where
they said that we failed, you are aware that we did not fail but
malpractice took place but they were able to show that the margin is not
much.
“So I said let me thank you all because your votes showed
that we are all in support of restructuring, it showed the unity of the
ethnic groups that I mentioned earlier. In the north, you would have
seen that those we agreed to vote for are our allies on restructuring.
“The second lap of election is coming this Saturday and I am begging
you to all come out enmass wherever you are domicile and vote. The one
we did, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and his running mate are
going to court and their going to court is in order because it was court
that returned Peter Obi’s mandate as Governor of Anambra state.
Jim
Nwobodo said that truth will surely come to light. The court will
decide for us whether our electoral process is free and fair. The
national assembly made a law for electoral coalition of votes cast but
they didn’t want it that way and that’s why going to court is
important.”
Source:- Vanguardngr
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