From Everest Ezihe, Owerri
The youth wing of Ohanaeze Ndigbo (Ohanaeze Youth Council) has accused the President general of the apex Igbo Socio Political organization, Nnia Nwodo of conniving with South east governors to cede the ohanaeze Ndi Igbo structure to the governors, ahead of the planned 2021 election of the body
National President of OYC, who raised the alaerm in a chatt with The AUTHORITY newspaper in Owerri, accused Nwodo, who is expected to hand over to a new leadership of Ohanaeze in 2021 of having a secret plot with South East governors over the election.
Igboayaka said part of the secret plot is the constituted electoral committee for the election at a meeting presided by Nwodo last Wednesday at Enugu, where governors from the zone were asked to send nominees for the committee.
He pointed out that it is undemocratic for the President General to ask governors to nominate two persons out of three per state to make up the Electoral Committee, stressing that the Apex Igbo organization cannot be positioned to be the political clique or association of South East Governors.
According to him “Nnia Nwodo wants to avoid having the Igbo elders/Imeobi scrutinize his actions. Constitutionally, the Imeobi is the body to set up the Electoral Committee, the NEC only recommends but by swearing in the committee without recourse to Imeobi, its already usurpation of Imeobi power and entitlement which ordinarily is an impeachable act and a foil of integrity,” Igboayaka stated.
He expressed regret that since the tenure of Nnia Nwodo, the Ohanaeze General Assembly, which is the organization’s highest decision making body, has not met even once.
He noted that “Imeobi has only met 3 times over two years of inception of Nwodo’s administration, the last time being in February, 2019 when the leadership endorsed Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of PDP as the South East presidential candidate.”
Igboayaka, who warned that the forthcoming Ohanaeze Ndigbo election will no longer be business as usual, advised Southeast governors and the incumbent President General to follow due process and to respect democratic principles without compromising, warning that Igbo youths will not trade Ohanaeze Ndigbo election with any individual or political interest.
