The President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Nnia Nwodo, has cancelled the inauguration of the 40-man electoral committee he had set up during the Imeobi meeting of the organisation in Enugu on December 6.

Nwodo who confirmed the cancellation gave no reason for his action but said it was not because of the objection of some members of the organisation as being insinuated.

The committee was to be inaugurated last Sunday but was called off. Nwodo’s Media Adviser, Emeka Attama said that the situation will remain the same until Imeobi meets again in a date yet to be scheduled. The Nwodo-led executive’s tenure expires on January 10, 2021.

There were avalanches of opposition against the composition of the electoral committee, mostly by the All Progressives Congress, APC, members during the last Imeobi meeting on December 6, with Senators Chris Ngige and Rochas Okorocha leading the protest.

The APC members including Governor Hope Uzodinma later retreated to a closed door meeting at Nike Lake Resort after the Imeobi meeting but did not disclose their resolution. Subsequently, the World Igbo Congress, WIC, has provided guidelines that would enthrone a smooth and rancour-free transition for the leadership of Ohanaeze Ndigbo in January 2021. WIC in a statement by its spokesman, Hon. Basil Onwukwe, said that wide consultation is most important in choosing the next leadership of Ohanaeze Ndigbo.

“It, however, warned that the choices to be made should be men of integrity who are vociferously courageous and would stick to Igbo interests other than apologists to forces outside Igboland.

Onwukwe said, “We welcome any peaceful nomination by Imo state chapter of Ohanaeze Ndigbo for the President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo.

“We are only going to commit our vote to who has advocated vociferously for Ndigbo and is willing to resist the political class that has undetermined the right to life of our youths and have also been unwilling to condemn the indiscriminate military attack on our unarmed Igbo youth.

“Leadership by intimidation in our homeland must stop. The youths in the region have suffered the highest death per capita in the country, and we have the highest threat to the life of our youths.

“World Igbo Congress is not in doubt that Ohanaeze Ndigbo will provide a capable and unimpeachable leader, but we must know what the consensus agreement is based on, especially when it is put in place by the usual and familiar group. The Congress proposed for a statutory funded Ohanaeze Ndigbo by all the South East state governments to avoid political abuse by any state or federal government, adding that Ohanaeze as the apex Igbo cultural entity, its leadership will no longer be at the negotiating table with hands tied because the governors can choose to deny the organization funding if their opinion was ignored.

“Ohanaeze leadership must understand that our demand for a true Igbo nation is not negotiable, the shared equity and security of our people are sacrosanct and that cannot be achieved under the present Nigerian configuration,” Onwukwe said. (Vanguard)

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