Ohanaeze constitution altered to endorse Atiku/Obi, says VON DG

Director-general of the Voice of Nigeria (VON), Osita Okechukwu, has accused Ohanaeze Ndigbo of altering the constitution of the socio-cultural body to endorse the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidates for the February 16 general election.

Ohanaeze had, last Thursday, made public its preference for PDP’s Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi for the presidency by endorsing their ticket.

Okechukwu, an APC chieftain, also accused the president-general of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief John Nwodo, of deliberately “sidelining several members of the group to enable them perfect the purported endorsement,’ adding that the development was against article 10(vi) of Ohanaeze constitution.

Okechukwu said in Enugu yesterday that the reaction of some Igbo leaders over the endorsement was justified because the collective interest of Ndigbo nationwide was atrophied.

He maintained that Nwodo acted arbitrarily and utterly circumvented Ohanaeze constitution in endorsing Atiku/Obi PDP ticket.

According to him, the Ime Obi should have first drawn a checklist of Igbo charter of demands and handed it over to the two leading contenders, Muhammadu Buhari and Atiku, and thereafter take a decision in a general assembly.

He said: “The tremendous respect one has for our elder brother, Chief John Nnia Nwodo, the president-general of Ohanaeze Ndigbo worldwide, perished when reports crept in on Thursday, January 24, 2019, on how he regrettably rigged the constitution of Ohanaeze and by extension Ndigbo worldwide by recklessly endorsing the Atiku/Obi ticket.

“Going through his communiqué, the first question is ‘where is the collective search, the critical and dispassionate appraisal in Nwodo’s endorsement, when in Rambo style he deliberately sidelined the general assembly, which, going by Article 10, subsection vi of the Ohanaeze constitution, is the supreme organ of Ohanaeze Ndigbo?’”

Reminded that Ime Obi is responsible for rapid response in Ohanaeze matters, Okechukwu quipped: “Is there emergency in 2019 presidential election which was fixed by the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria?”