By ARUGA JOE OMOKARO, Port Harcourt

The Igbo Elders Council has endorsed Sir Mike Mbama Okiro as the next President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo. According to a statement issued on Wednesday, January 8, 2025, ?Okiro is the only living retired senior police officer to have worked with nine heads of state and Presidents of Nigeria.?

The statement signed on behalf of the Counci by, Nze Uchechukwu Enweremmadu stressed that Okiro is most suitable to lead Ndi-Igbo having worked with General Mohammadu Buhari, in 1983, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida in 1985, Gen Sani Abacha in 1990, Gen Abdulsalami Abubakar in 1998, President Olusegun Obasanjo, in 1999, President Musa Yar'Adua in 2007, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan in 2010, President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, when he was the governor of Lagos State and Mike Okiro was his Commissioner of Police.

According to the Council, ?Okiro has track records of solving the nation?s problems time and again.

?As a police officer, he was able to curb the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC)?s incessant crisis in Lagos State that could have resulted in much more serious economic losses to Lagos, but his tactical wisdom in handling of that crisis saved Lagos State and the entire Southwest region from serious breakdown of law and order.

?His determination to restore normalcy in Lagos eventually repositioned the entire region to become the best regional economy in the country.?

The statement noted that the Niger Delta Amnesty Programme was Okiro?s concept, and has halted further bloodshed of Nigerian youths in the Niger Delta region. ?That action saved the lives of tens of thousands of Nigeria's Niger Delta youths from what could have become the greatest tragedy of our time from Nigeria's own military onslaught on Nigeria's youths,? the Council said.

It stressed that the Amnesty Programme has also saved the lives of many security personnel because some of them were losing their lives in their efforts to curtail the excesses of the ex-militants while engaging them in gun battle. This very action also helped improved Nigeria's economy.

The statement recalled that in 24 hours after Sir Okiro returned from the creeks after meeting with the militants, thousands of guns were surrendered, and the militants stopped their attacks on Nigeria's oil infrastructure and Nigeria's crude oil output rose from 600,000 BPD to 1.6million BPD.

?Ndi-Igbo will surely benefit from Sir Mike Okiro's wealth of experience,? the Igbo Elders Council advised.

It insisted that, ?Sir Mike Okiro is the best candidate for the position of Ohanaeze Ndigbo?, adding: ?Wth Mike Okiro's track records of helping to bring peace and economic stability to two geopolitical zones of South-West and South-South of Nigeria, we believe he can replicate same in the South-East of Nigeria and indeed all Igbo land by ending the isolation of Igbos in Nigeria.

?We trust and believe in Mike Okiro's world connections to bring peace and economic revival to Igboland and the borders of Nigeria. This is the kind of leader Igbos need to lead us at this critical time where building bridges across various divides has become imperative to achieve collective.?

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