The President General of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief John Nnia Nwodo, has distanced the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation from the endorsement of All Progressives Congress (APC) gubernatorial candidate in Lagos, Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
The President of Ohanaeze in Lagos, Solomon Ogbonna had described Sanwo-Olu as the best thing to happen to Ndigbo in Lagos and urged Igbos residents in the state to vote massively for him in the March 9 gubernatorial election.
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In a statement published by Vanguard, Nwodo however distanced the group from Ogbonna’s stance, saying it was his personal opinion that was not binding on anyone.
He also encouraged Ndigbo in Lagos to go out en masse and vote for any candidate of their choice in the gubernatorial election.
In the same vein, he urged them to defy the violence that marred the February 23 presidential and national assembly elections and perform their civic responsibility on Saturday.
Nwodo said:
On the coming governorship and state assembly elections, Ohanaeze never met to tell Ndigbo where to vote but what Imeobi Ohanaeze said was that one thing you need to have at the back of your mind is that whoever you want to vote for should be one who agrees on restructuring so that whenever you representative is asked to vote, he will say that he agrees on restructuring of the country; so that if a governor is called upon to call a meeting for restructuring, he would agree to summon such meeting. It is such people you should vote for. In Igboland, it’s not difficult to find such people. One who has done well, let him so for second term.
For the Igbo leaving outside our land, nobody should scare you people. We all have equal rights whether you reside in Igboland or in diaspora. I have been most disturbed by news from Lagos and I want to tell our people residing in Lagos that what Solomon Ogbonna, the Ohanaeze President in Lagos, said was his personal opinion and was never approved by Ohanaeze Ndigbo.
We never asked him to nominate who to vote for in Lagos. What he said was in bad faith and nobody should listen to him. Both Jim Agbaje and Sanwo-Olu are contestants and they are all good people and you should vote for whoever you prefer but be mindful of who is interested in restructuring.
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