Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the apex Igbo socio-cultural organization, has once again attacked the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) Presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
This time, the Igbo group urged Atiku not to expect a significant vote from the South-East in the general elections in 2023.
Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro, Secretary-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, issued a statement on Tuesday urging the PDP candidate not to “waste his time and resources for any reason in the South-east and Igbo-speaking areas of the South/South and Middle belt.”
He told Atiku that the people swarming around him from the aforementioned areas were only interested in their pockets.
Isiguzoro stated that, while Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of the PDP was a true Igbo son, he was in the wrong pairing.
“Our people gave Atiku all of their support in 2019, but shortly after the election, he abandoned them to their fate, only to return four years later,” he added.
“He has even come out and said openly that he is merely a Northern candidate.” He should be aware that everyone around him is yelling ‘Yahoo-Yahoo’ at him.
“Igbo political elites, including PDP governors, understand that Atiku will lose in the Southeast without receiving the required constitutional 25% of the vote following his infamous Kaduna declaration that he belongs only to the North.”
“Nigerians from the North, West, South, and East face severe hunger, unemployment, and insecurity.” Any Presidential candidate who plays ethnic and religious cards without demonstrating evidence of rescuing the country from the abyss of economic and social crisis in which Nigerians find themselves will be disgraced at the polls.
“What Nigerians need now is a nationalist leader, not a sectarian leader like Atiku.”
(Daily Post)