The Ohanaeze Ndigbo has declared its resolve to go the full hog with the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr. Peter Obi, in his bid to retrieve the mandate given to him by Nigerians at the February 25 election.

This is as the apex Igbo body saluted the people of the South-East for not succumbing to intimidation and threats of violence; as they came out in their large numbers and voted at the poll. National Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze, Dr. Alex Ogbonnia, told Saturday Sun, yesterday, that Nigerians from across the country believed in the LP candidate’s message that a new Nigeria was possible, hence, their massive support for the Obi-Datti candidature.

“I’m happy Nigeria is moving away from political apathy to a participant political culture. It is a plus because in the third world that participation has been a problem and you can see they participated actively. They couldn’t be suppressed or intimidated. They rather defied all the threats from all the external forces and came even under sunshine and rain. They stood strongly and expressed their wish through their votes. We were impressed because in the past, they did not have confidence in the electoral system and to that extent there is this political apathy. But they came out fully and voted,” Ogbonnia said.

Ohanaeze described Obi as a meticulous person whose personal conviction might not be called to question. To that extent, the group expressed the optimism that the LP candidate would emerge victorious at the courts.

Spokesman of the Igbo group said: “I have confidence in that because when he was deprived of his victory sometime in Anambra State, he struggled and assured people that he would recover it, later on, he recovered that mandate. The same way, it is like history repeating itself.

“Anybody who has known Peter Obi will know that he is always sure of whatever he is doing. He is conscious of whatever position or decision he is taking. He is not a man of frivolities or a man who takes decisions anyhow. He takes a thorough review of his decisions before making it public.

“In fact, I would rather say that Ohanaeze Ndigbo endorses the speech by Peter Obi in pursuing this case and to make sure that we follow it to its logical conclusion and we are very confident that he will win.”

In addition, Ohanaeze stated that there was nothing wrong in the declared winner of the election, Bola Tinubu, reaching out to other contenders for reconciliation, noting that such things make the society move.

The group, however, said that no overture was enough to stop Obi from pursuing his mandate to its logical conclusion.

“Whatever friendship someone is trying to seek, there is no problem with that, but it does not stop pursuing this election to its logical conclusion,” Ohanaeze stated.

(Saturday Sun)

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