Secretary General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Ambassador Okey Emuchay, has said that Igbo enemies including two serving Governors from South East, are using the self-acclaimed Secretary General of the apex Igbo socio-cultural organization, Mazi Okechuku Isiguzoro, to destroy Ohanaeze, and ridicule Igbo race.

The former Nigeria High Commissioner to South Africa who spoke exclusively with Vanguard, said Ohanaeze had reported Isiguzoro to both the police and the Department of State Services, DSS, but wondered how he had been slipping off their radar.

Ambassador Emuchay expressed bitterness that some unpatriotic and selfish elements bent on destroying the Igbo cause had found Isiguzoro a willing tool to accomplish their machinations against the Igbo nation.

He explained that Isiguzoro who was a one-time President of the Ohanaeze Youth Council, never contested for any position but only participated as a delegate in the Ohaneze election that produced the current leadership of the organization in 2021.

” It’s unfortunate that somebody will just wake up and attach a title to his name and start issuing statements up and down on behalf of Ohanaeze Ndigbo.

“When we had an election that produced the Professor George Obiozor-led Ohanaeze in Owerri, January 2021, Isiguzoro was among Abia delegates led by the late Chief Ukpai Agwu Ukpai; and Chief Okey Ahiwe.

“He never contested for any position but only participated as a delegate. Then three weeks later, he came to Ohanaeze national secretariat in Enugu with a former Commissioner in Imo, one Engr. Ibe, and claimed he was the Secretary-General, and Ibe, the PG.

” Since then, he has been parading himself as such, and issuing statements inimical to Ohanaeze and the Igbo nation," he added.

Ambassador Emuchay said that Ohanaeze leadership had reported Isiguzoro to his Ngwa traditional rulers for admonition against his anti-Igbo and unpatriotic activities.

He said that the monarchs promptly summoned him and he promised to discontinue his unbecoming activities but never kept the promise.

The Ohaneze Scribe further said that Ohanaeze leadership filed a petition against impersonation by Isiguzoro to the Inspector General of Police who directed the Commissioners of Police in the South East to arrest him but expressed shock that to date, the arrest had not been effected.

He also said that Ohanaeze later instituted a legal action against Isiguzoro and obtained an injunction restraining him from parading as the organization’s Secretary.

A copy of the court injunction marked E/878/2022 issued by Honourable Justice U. J Mogboh of Enugu State High Court and dated March 10, 2023.

The Respondents – Chidi Ibeh, Okechuku Isiguzoro, Prince Richard Ozobu and Nnabuike Okwu, were restrained from parading themselves physically or by proxy, as officials of Ohanaeze Ndigbo.

Emuchay added that Ohanaeze had also reported Isiguzoro to the DSS but wondered how he had been evading arrest.

He noted that some powerful forces including two South East Governors are behind him.

“Some powerful politicians including two serving South East Governors are bankrolling him, and using him to destroy Ohanaeze and ridicule Igbo land.

"We have reported him to the IGP who directed CPs in the South East to pick him up but they said they had been tracking him but nobody knows where he is hiding.

"He is from Abia but resides in Ebonyi State, and has been hiding from Obingwa to Enugu and Abakaliki.

"We have also written to the DSS attaching copies of the restraining court order but he has not been arrested. It’s like the Adamawa REC that was to be arrested but has not been arrested,” he said.

Ambassador Emuchay said that former President General of Ohanaeze, Chief Nnia Nwodo, had once confronted Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State who hails from the same Obingwa Local Government Area with Isiguzoro, over his failure to call him to order but that the Governor could not offer any explanation.

“In one of our meetings in Enugu Government House, our former PG, Chief Nwodo challenged Gov. Ikpeazu about this young man. But the Governor could not utter any word. He knows that if the Governor who is from the same Obingwa tells him to stop this nonsense, he will stop disgracing the Igbo race.”

Emuchay who noted that many people including non-Igbo, “are sick and tired of the disgrace” by Isiguzoro, urged Ndigbo and members of the general public to discountenance him and never relate with him as Ohanaeze chieftain.

He also urged media organizations to stop promoting Isiguzoro who he described as “an impostor”, saying that referring to him as Ohanaeze Secretary General amounts to ridiculing the Igbo nation as he never contested for the position.

But when contacted for his response, Isiguzoro said he was not an impostor but a factional Secretary of his own faction of Ohanaeze Ndigbo.

He said that Ohanaeze had three factions, insisting that non of the factions has right over the other until the court action instituted by his faction is determined.

“There are three factions of Ohanaeze Ndigbo: one led by Late Obiozor; one by High Chief Chidi Ibe ; and Barr. O Onyeacholam, the people who registered Ohanaeze Ndigbo General Assembly in CAC.”

Isiguzoro denied participating as a delegate in the election that produced the Obiozor-led executive, challenging anyone with documentary evidence to show proof.

He rather claimed that he had emerged on January 9, 2021 before “one Governor went to a stadium and organized a parallel election against COVID-19 protocols and in violation of Ohanaeze Constitution of secret ballot.

“After the parallel election in Owerri, we filed a court case in Umuahia and Abuja against the illegal misrepresentation of those who participated in Owerri election.”

He further said:”Ndigbo know who the Secretary General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo is, and Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro will not be distracted.”

Isiguzoro accused the Obiozor-led Ohanaeze of not honouring the recommendations of Igbo clerics that had waded into the leadership crisis in the apex Igbo body.

“Both factions of Ohanaeze Ndigbo were summoned by Conference of Igbo Bishops led by Anglican Archbishop Emmanuel Chukwuma; and Archbishop Chibuzor Opoko of Methodist Church; after Igbo Muslim clerics and pentecostal church leaders of South East resolutions were not obeyed by the unrecognized faction of Ohanaeze Ndigbo”.

Meanwhile, Emuchay, who explained that there is no appointive position in Ohanaeze, expressed disappointment over the refusal of some former officers of Ohanaeze to vacate office at the expiration of their tenure.

“Tenure of Ohanaeze exco is four years. There is also a former President of Ohanaeze Lagos State chapter whose tenure has expired but he refused to vacate office”.

The Ohaneze Chief Scribe hinted that the Imeibo would be meeting in Enugu on Sunday to ratify the selection of Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu by the Imo State Council of Elders as a replacement for the late PG, Professor Obiozor, to complete the turn of Imo State. (Vanguard)

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