By Myke Uzendu, Abuja
A South East political pressure group, known as the Igbo Progressive Front (IPF), has faulted comments credited to Osita Okechukwu, the Director General of Voice of Nigeria (VON) on the Presidential ambition of Bauchi state governor, Sen. Bala Mohammed and zoning.
Okechukwu, a founding member of the All Progressives Congress had on Thursday in Abuja, berated the Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed and the Peoples Democratic Party’s position on the zoning of the 2023 presidency.
The Director general said that PDP and the governor were being opportunistic with their position on zoning, adding that they were only trying to undermine Nigerians’ voting preferences.
Okechukwu’s reaction comes hours after the Bauchi state governor who, after a visit to former President Olusegun Obasanjo in Abeokuta, told correspondents that the APC’s move to zone the presidency to the South is no threat to the PDP because his party’s strategy is to “whip up ethnoreligious sentiment.”
But Okechukwu while commenting on the position of the governor noted that his disposition exudes lack of dynamism in the political paradigm of the main opposition, Peoples Democratic Party..
He maintained that the PDP has proven that it is incapable of outshining the APC, especially when the unity and prosperity of Nigeria is not its priority.
He said: “I think if the statement credited to him is correct, His Excellency, Bala Mohammed and by extension PDP, is simply being opportunistic by saying that APC’s zoning of presidency to the South is not a threat to the PDP, because if we put it to the North, it will give us more electoral victory. That’s ethnic chauvinism, simple”.
While condemning the reaction of Okechukwu, the group, in a press statement signed by its President, Mazi Njoku Mbamalu, cautioned the VON Director General “to bridle his tongue and take his ill feelings elsewhere”, stating however that “It is evident that Mr Okechukwu is deflecting from the disorganization and disunity that inhabits his party, APC, through his display. Such aggression and failure cannot be transferred. Where the opposition PDP has shown cohesion and direction, the ruling APC is playing a catch up and fighting internal fires to appear electable”.
The Igbo group alleged that Okechukwu is aware of the bitter complaint by his kinsmen on marginalisation in the country but remains aloof and distant in engagement that would have doused tension and bring about a remedy.
“The Igbo youths are being brutalized and detained by the government he (Osita Okechukwu) is a part of. He has been and remains far removed in assisting to remedy the situation, because he is myopic in his self-interest.
The group described Senator Bala Mohammed as a “Fulani who stood up to support Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, an Ijaw man, at a time of crisis in the nation. Bala spent his political life so far working in the interest of the nation. Bala’s actions are not the acts of a chauvinistic tribalist.
The group called Okechukwu to stop further attack on the governor and concentrate more on how to rigglle out of his EFCC and other situations that has cobwebed his future in the ruling party.
