The highest decision-making body of the Igbo, ImeObi Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has finally thrown its weight behind the candidature of Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for the February 16, 2019 presidential election.
Rising from a meeting at the Nike Lake Hotel, Enugu, on Thursday, the body issued a communiqué announcing its support for the PDP candidates.
In the communiqué signed by the President General of Ohanaeze, Nnia Nwodo, the body it fully embraced the Atiku/Obi ticket “without equivocation.”
The endorsement of Atiku by Ohanaeze came on the day that President Muhammadu Buhari had visited Anambra to solicit support from Ndigbo with promises that his second term “will be full of roses for the people of the South-East,”
The communique reads in part, “The Ime Obi Ohaneze Ndi Igbo met today, Thursday 24 January, 2019, at the Nike Lake Hotel, Enugu, to further deliberate on the future of Ndigbo in the chequred history of a beleaguered country.
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“After a critical and dispassionate appraisal of the issues and the visible fault lines in our polity, including the analysis of the election manifestos of the various contesting parties, especially with regards to the restructuring of the federation and continued relevance of our people in the Nigerian geopolitical space, the meeting resolved as follows:
“That Ohaneze notes particularly that a major political party (PDP) by the nomination of our son Peter Obi as the vice presidential candidate has given Ndigbo an opportunity for inclusivity. Ndigbo must seize the moment;
“That the presidential candidate of PDP Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has made an avowed commitment to restructuring of the federation and reconfirmed same during his recent visit to the United States in his meetings high-level US officials;
“In consideration of the above and other relevant existential factors pertaining to the treatment of the Igbo in our polity, the Ime Obi Ohaneze, therefore, hereby ratify the decision reached at the Ohaneze National Executive Committee meeting held in Enugu on Tuesday 22 January, 2019, to adopt the Atiku Abubakar/ Peter Obi ticket in the 2019 presidential election. Ime Obi therefore endorses and embraces fully, this ticket without equivocation.”
