The apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has described as untrue the statement credited to Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Abdulrosheed Adewale Akanbi, that the Igbo cannot be trusted with the office of the Nigerian presidency.

Ohanaeze noted that Oba Akanbi’s attack on the Igbo was not based on any verifiable evidence but rather on self-serving interests.

Oba Akanbi had, in a statement issued through his Chief Press Secretary, Alli Ibraheem, said that “no Nigerian will feel secure in the hands of a leader whose ethnic attachment deprived other Nigerians of their rights”.

He further accused the Igbo of “preventing people from the other parts of the country from acquiring properties in their domain”, adding that “the style by the Southeasterners is barbaric”.

Reacting to the allegations on Tuesday, Ohanaeze President General, Prof. George Obiozor, described the accusations as untrue, and advised Oba Akanbi to “undergo some tutelage under some more experienced cosmopolitan urbane intelligent monarchs”, stating that a well-adjusted traditional ruler is known by being open-minded towards all, especially people of other ethnic groups that may be found in his domain.

Obiozor in a statement issued through the National Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze, Chief Alex Ogbonnia, said, “It is self-evident that Nigeria is a beleaguered country that urgently needs nation-building; inflammatory and incendiary remarks from monarchs and the highly placed are antithetical to peace and unity of Nigeria.

“In promoting his preferred candidate, he has committed a fallacy of hasty generalisation when he stated that ‘the style by southeasterners is barbaric; the Igbo cannot be trusted with power’, among others.

“Surely, such prejudice, innuendo and vitriolic group vilifications against the entire Igbo nation is most unreflective of a royal father whose primary duty is to sow seeds of unity in his kingdom and beyond. For the avoidance of doubt, the Igbo are adventurous nation builders; they are found in all parts of Nigeria and beyond.

“The wild claims that the Igbo prevent people from the other parts of the country from acquiring properties in their domain or have an obnoxious policy of depriving other Nigerians of their rights cannot be substantiated. On the other hand, it is inconceivable that a group that builds modern houses in all parts of the country will prevent other ethnicities from building in their homestead.

“One would think that the morbid fabrication of falsehood is terrible mischief, only for the uninitiated. What else? Oba Akanbi is drawn to his paradox, where he acknowledged the damage done to the Igbo during the Nigerian civil war and at the same time condemning the agitation by Igbo youth, such as the ESN for their clamour for inclusiveness based on equity and justice after about 53 years of the Nigerian Civil War,” the statement read in part. (Text, excluding headline: The PUNCH)