Igbo apex sociocultural organization Ohanaeze Ndigbo has congratulated President Muhammadu Buhari for emerging the winner of the last Saturday’s presidential election.
The suspended secretary general of the organization, Uche Okwukwu while addressing a press conference Thursday in Enugu said Buhari’s victory was well deserved.
Okwukwu who was with a chieftain of Ohanaeze, Prince Richard Ozobu insisted that the said endorsement of the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) was not the decision of Ndigbo as there was no general meeting in that regard.
In his words: “The Ohanaeze Ndigbo heartily rejoices and congratulates President Muhammadu Buhari on his well-deserved victory at the Presidential polls on February 23, 2019. His victory as exposed by the majority of votes cast has clearly shown that the President has been on the right course in the last four years.
“Ndigbo are deeply happy that Mr. President secured more votes in Igboland than he got in 2015. We urge all Nigerians and the international community to accept the verdict as the election was adjudged, free, credible, transparent and peaceful and call on all not to heat up the polity through unguarded utterances and actions.”
He reeled out the situation that led to the disagreement among the hierarchy of Ohanaeze saying that it started with the commissioning of Zik’s Mausoleum.
He said most members frowned at the insistence of Nnia Nwodo in holding the Imeobi meeting on the day President Buhari was to honour Zik by commissioning the mausoleum at Onitsha.
“They disrespected Zik and ignored all the governors from the old Eastern Region who were present at commissioning.
“And the worst of it all was that they announced the endorsement on the same day without the general meeting of members.
“The decision to endorse any candidate should have attracted wide consultations and not a thing to be done in a hurry,” he said.
The Ohanaeze, he said, would soon pay a courtesy visit to the president in which they will congratulate him formally and present their demands.
