Ohanaeze Ndigbo: Youth wing bars sec-gen from secretariat

The succession crisis rocking the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, deepened on Friday as its youth wing barred the Secretary General, Ambassador Okey Emuchay, from the national secretariat of the organisation in Enugu.

They also reaffirmed Mazi Chukwuma Okpalaezeukwu as the acting National Youth Leader pending the election of the group next year.

Rising from the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting in Enugu, the youth wing stated that the “Secretary General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo lacks the powers to remove and/or replace any executive officer,” stressing that his “attempt to unilaterally remove the acting National Youth Leader, Mazi Chukwuma Okpalaezeukwu, violated the Ohanaeze Constitution and must be checked.”

The parent body, in a statement by the National Publicity Secretary, Dr. Alex Ogbonnia, on Wednesday, had withdrawn the leadership of the youth wing from Okpalaezeukwu and urged him to revert to his former position as Secretary General of the wing.

It had declared him a “persona non grata; unfaithful, unworthy, unfit, and maladjusted to the core values of Ohanaeze Ndigbo worldwide” and urged the general public to distance themselves from him.

Okpalaezeukwu was appointed to act as leader of the youth wing in 2023 following a rift in the group that led to the removal of the National Youth Leader, Damian Okafor.

But in their response to the parent body through their communique read at the national secretariat of Ohanaeze Ndigbo in Enugu by their Publicity Secretary, Chika Adiele, the youth group declared the disclaimer by the parent body on their acting leader as “baseless.”

The statement, signed by the 23 members that make up the NEC of the youth wing, insisted that Okpalaezeukwu remains the Acting National Youth Leader of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, “as unanimously elected by the National Executive Committee (NEC) of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Wing, ratified and confirmed by both the National Executive Committee (NEC) of Ohanaeze Ndigbo led by the President General and Ime Obi Ohanaeze Ndigbo (the highest decision-making body as recognized by the Constitution).”

They added that his authority subsists until an elected Youth Leader of Ebonyi State extraction emerges.

They commended the resilience and unwavering solidarity of Igbo youths towards their passionate plea to stay out of the ongoing nationwide protest, stressing that it was indeed a critical and challenging time for Ndigbo; ranging from grief over the demise of loved ones, undue detention of Igbo youths, unlawful and malicious demolition and destruction of property and investments, absence of federal infrastructure, and other forms of neglect that have denied its sense of belonging in Nigeria.

“We are concerned about the pockets of violent crimes and economic instability in the South East, especially the needless loss of lives; we therefore enjoin our Governors to urgently convene a strategic meeting with the Apex Youth body in a bid to proffer lasting solutions,” they said.

They also called on the government of Abia State, especially the Legislature led by Emmanuel Ihuoma Emeruwa, to immediately obey the Appeal Court Judgment by swearing in the recognized Representative of Aba North State Constituency in the Abia State House of Assembly, Aaron Uzodike.

“This is in order not to give a chance to civil unrest in Abia State,” they noted.