CITIZENS COMPASS– Few weeks to the 2023 general elections, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo General Assembly Worldwide (ONGAW), has directed it’s members to vote for candidates of their choice saying it is yet to endorse a presidential candidate for the elections.
The group disclosed this in a statement signed by its Director General, Strategic Planning and Implementations, Amb. Tony Obizoba, on Tuesday, February 7, 2023.
He urged Igbo people to vote for candidates of their choice.
The group was reacting to a report suggesting that it had endorsed the Presidential Candidate of Labour Party (LP), Dr. Peter Obi, as preferred candidate of the Igbo people of Nigeria, it said the report was simply the figment of imagination of purveyors of same as such decision was unknown either its leadership or any of its members across the country.
“As the established umbrella body recognised by law to speak for the Igbo ethnic group in the country, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo General Assembly Worldwide, hereby states that – as far as the authenticity of Igbo voice is concerned – no one among the presidential contestants has been endorsed by it.”
“It has always been our watchword that in Nigeria, a multi-ethnic and multi-religious country, the Igbo cannot exist in isolation of others.
“To this end, since we cannot afford to take action that will be injurious to the collective interest of South East person anywhere in the country, we urge all the Igbo people home and abroad to note that our resolve on peace and development based on unity of Nigeria is sacrosanct.
“We have Igbo across all the contending parties and cannot afford to take the partisan path. We cannot, we repeat. And, to us, it has always been Nigeria First! Nigeria First!! Nigeria First!!! That has not changed. We stand, on this election, to be for nobody but for everybody,” Amb. Chiemelu Obizoba said.
“Every Igbo eligible voter should therefore keep his or her Personal Voter’s Card (PVC) intact without allowing anybody to buy it off him or her and then, on February 25, 2023 go ahead and vote for Presidential Candidate of his or her choice.”
The socio-cultural is the apex body for the Ndigbo in Nigeria.
