Ahead of next week’s presidential election, Igbo leaders drawn from the 19 northern states of the country and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have reaffirmed their “nonnegotiable” support for the candidature of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) flagbearer, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, and his running mate, Mr Peter Obi.

The group, comprising about 30 leaders of the Igbo Delegates Assembly (IDA), leaders of Ohanaeze, Presidents General of the seven Igbo-speaking states in the FCT, leading Igbos from the business sector, other Professionals, the Academia, Civil society, women and youth organisations, met on Thursday night in Abuja. They said after the meeting that “that voting for Atiku-Obi is a guarantee for the unity survival and progress of Nigeria and the future generation.”

The meeting therefore called on all Igbos, both at home and in diaspora, “to disregard and ignore the nefarious activities of a few disgruntled persons who have been paid by desperate politicians to sabotage Igbo interests and make it look as if Igbos are not united in this cause.”

In their communique signed by the 30 leaders and released in Abuja on Friday, the stakeholders meeting said that after “extensive interactions and deliberations,” they “affirmed their support of the Chief Nnia Nwodo led Ohanaeze Ndigbo and its endorsement of the Atiku-Obi ticket as the presidential ticket of choice for Ndigbo. The meeting joins Ohanaeze Ndigbo in endorsing the Atiku-Obi ticket and urges all Igbo Sons and Daughters, home and abroad to vote massively for this choice on 16th February 2019.

“The meeting notes that the endorsement of the Atiku-Obi ticket is because of their clear vision on restructuring and the strategy to make Nigeria work again, a move that has been welcomed and embraced by all ethnic Nationalities across the country.”

Stating that a vote for Atiku-Obi ticket will bring Ndigbo into the main stream of Nigerian politics, it noted its conviction that the “presidential campaign train of Atiku-Obi has garnered tremendous support across the length and breadth of Nigeria to actualise their mandate.”

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