Stephen Ukandu, Umuahi
Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has disowned media reports that it called for the inclusion of Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo in the proposed impeachment proceedings against President Muhammadu Buhari.
It described the purported press statement as the handiwork of charlatans and attention seekers impersonating the body.
National Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Dr Alex Ogbonnia, in a press statement, warned those issuing unauthorized statements purportedly on behalf of the apex Igbo body to desist from such unholy act.
Below is a full text of the statement made available to Ikengaonline:
“The attention of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide has been drawn to a bizarre and reckless publication currently circulating in the media indicating that Ohanaeze Ndigbo calls on “the National Assembly to include the Vice President of Nigeria, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, in the impeachment threat on the President Muhammadu Buhari.
“Ordinarily, Ohanaeze Ndigbo would have ignored the said press release, but silence in this circumstance will tend to give validity to such a fallacy by the unsuspecting public. It is therefore necessary to inform that those behind the fake press release are mischief makers, impostors, charlatans and loose media navigators who leech on the invaluable footprints of Ohanaeze Ndigbo to issue press releases for narrow, perverse and illicit pecuniary interests.
“We wish to inform the general public that Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide has neither contemplated nor issued such a reckless statement on the person of Professor Yemi Osinbajo, SAN.
“It is worth repeating that various eminent Igbo dignitaries have appealed to such mischief makers to appreciate that Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide represents the history, emotions, collectivity, spirituality, unity and strength of the Igbo nation.
“We have severally appealed to the social deviants that the Igbo, all over the world owe a profound emotional attachment to their apex socio-cultural organization, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, and as such our sacred identity should not be desecrated on the whims, caprices and immediacies of the uninitiated.
“The Igbo have a unique socio-political orientation and disposition; they are republican, egalitarian, deliberative, liberal and democratic. On the other hand, no person has a right to wake up and issue a far-reaching statement on behalf of Ohanaeze Ndigbo without consultations or a form of consensus.
“Those behind such acts are highly ignorant of the damages they cause to themselves and the Igbo nation on a daily basis. They are reminded that every misconduct against the Igbo pantheon has its corresponding consequences.
“The Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide led by Ambassador Professor George Obiozor regrets the embarrassments that are often caused to the general public by the maladjusted attention seekers that deploy the name of Ohaneze Ndigbo in most unscrupulous dimensions.
“Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide hereby vehemently disclaims the unwarranted press release against the person of the erudite scholar and the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, SAN.”
