Less than 24 hours after, endorsement of Atiku Abubakar reportedly tears Ohaneze Ndigbo apart as Buhari's ministers kick

- Some chieftains of the Ohaneze Ndigbo kick as the organisation's leadership endorses Atiku Abubakar

- Some of the members of the group, including ministers in the government of Muhammadu Buhari, say the endorsement was not unanimous

- However, a spokesperson to the president general of the organisation insists that the body has chosen who it wants as president

Reports say some chieftains of Ohaneze Ndigbo are not happy with the purported endorsement of the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Abubakar Atiku, by the organisation ahead of the 2019 election.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that a former secretary general of the organisation, Chief Obiora Ozobu, reportedly claimed that the move to endorse Atiku is simply a hoax and personal invention of the head of the organisation, Chief Nnia Nwodo.

It was learnt that Ozobu disclosed this in Enugu on Thursday, January 25, during a media briefing where he appealed to the people of the area to ignore the endorsement.

According to him, the endorsement is a mischievous act aimed at causing division among Ndigbo.

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He argued that Nwodo lacked the capacity to summon a meeting of ‘Ime Obi’ because his tenure as president general had lapsed.

Wondering why such meeting was held on a day President Muhammadu Buhari was in Anambra and Enugu states for his campaign and when the Zik mausoleum was inaugurated, he said the leaders of the organisation were expected to participate actively in the inauguration ceremony of the project which was started 23 years ago but completed by Buhari.

Ozobu argued that the meeting was nothing but the gathering of friends of Atiku and did not represent the wishes of the people of the area.

“The meeting is an attempt to perpetuate Nwodo in office. Granted that there were attempts to extend the tenure of Ohaneze executives to four but such has not materialised,” he said.

Legit.ng learnt that the minister of labour, Chris Ngige, described the move as unfortunate, adding that the endorsement of presidential candidates had never done anything good for Ndigbo.

Minister Ngige insisted that Ohaneze as a socio-cultural organisation had no business endorsing a particular candidate just as he noted that Nwodo had divided the organisation along party lines, adding that “we will fight this out.”

On his part, a former Enugu state governor, Sullivan Chime, noted that the said endorsement was done by those that had left office.

“It was not a meeting of Ohaneze Ndigbo but a meeting between Nwodo and his friends. Ohaneze has no business doing what that group did,” Chime said.

In his reaction, the foreign affairs minister, Geoffrey Onyeama, described the meeting where the endorsement was made as inappropriate since it held at a time Buhari was in the south east for his campaign.

For Onyeama, the meeting was a calculated attempt to exclude a significant number of the people from such gathering, assuming it was a meeting of Ohaneze.

“A significant number of the membership was not present at the meeting assuming it was a meeting of Ohaneze. So it is inappropriate to have a meeting of such magnitude,” Onyeama said.

Speaking about the endorsement, a former president of the Senate, Ken Nnamani, said that such position made no meaning to the people of the area.

“Our sons and daughters belong to many political parties and our people have never voted as a block but according to their conscience,” he said adding that such a position was not in the best interest of the people and would not stand.

However, the personal assistant to the president general of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Emeka Attamah, noted that everyone was entitled to their opinions.

For Attamah, the Ohaneze Ndigbo has endorsed whoever its members wanted and the people kicking against it are members of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

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He said that it was misleading to say that the tenure of the executive members of the organisation was two years, adding that the constitution had been amended to reflect the current four-year tenure.

“The tenure is four years and they should go to court to contest,” Attamah said.

Other people at the meeting include the science and technology minister, Ogbonnaya Onu, and Osita Okechukwu.

Legit.ng earlier reported that the Ohaneze Ndigbo formally endorsed Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the PDP.

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