Only the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) faction of the pan-Igbo socio cultural group Ohaneze Ndigbo endorsed the party’s Presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar for the February 16 elections, according to the Buhari Media Organisation (BMO).
It said in a statement signed by its Chairman Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary Cassidy Madueke that it was not surprising that several members of the group are already dissociating themselves from the purported endorsement.
“ John Nwodo, the President-General of the faction has for some time now left no doubt about his romance with the PDP and is known to be a regular face at meetings convened by another PDP chieftain Chief Edwin Clark.
“Even his colleagues in Ohaneze have seen through him and were quick to disown the communiqué he issued after a hurriedly arranged meeting of Ime-Obi meeting (Ohaneze’s highest decision making organ) on the same day that President Muhammadu Buhari was in Anambra and Enugu State on campaign.
“It was disingenuous that Nwodo chose the same day the President was commissioning the Nnamdi Azikiwe Mausoleum which his administration completed twenty two years after it began, to act out a personal script”, BMO said.
The group, however, hailed more politically savvy members of the socio-cultural group and other right thinking people of Igbo extraction who have dismissed the purported endorsement, noting that it shows that not everyone in the South East is keen on allowing Nwodo to drag them into the void of political irrelevance by endorsing a candidate with no chance of winning the Presidential election.
It said: “We particularly note the swift denouncement by the Anambra state government which left no one in doubt about the pre-conceived notion of Nwodo on the ImeObi meeting which reached a decision even before the arrival of its delegates and that of Ebonyi State amongst others.
“The fact that the purported endorsement was done even before the arrival of some of the statutory members of the organ who were not likely to back the candidacy of Atiku Abubakar smacks of brazen manipulation.
“Another strong dissenting voice is that of the Ohaneze Youth Council which is insisting that the people of the South East should be allowed to vote in the Presidential election in line with their conscience, and by far the most suggestive criticism came from the former Secretary General of Ohaneze, Obiora Ozobu, who described it as a hoax and an Nwodo personal invention.”
The pro-Buhari group asserted that contrary to the position of the Nwodo group in the Ohaneze, President Buhari is the most viable choice for the good people of the region.
BMO is emphatic that the President has done more for the South East than any of his predecessors since 1999 and urged the people to reciprocate the gesture by casting their vote for a performing candidate.
“Aside from the 11.9 kilometre Second Niger Bridge, there are sixty nine ongoing road projects in the region including roads that were abandoned as far back as 2002 as well as the Ariaria power plant in Aba market which has boosted business activities in one of Nigeria’s busiest and biggest hubs of commercial activities.”