2023 presidency Bribery allegations rock Ohanaeze. The leading Igbo socio-cultural group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has once more been the target of corruption charges ahead of the 2023 presidential race.
According to DAILY POST, these claims against the Igbo organization are not new to the public eye.
Members of the group were also accused of soliciting hundreds of millions of naira from presidential contenders in various prior elections.
Despite strong resistance from All Progressives Congress (APC) members from the South-East zone, Ohanaeze backed Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in 2019. The change caused the gang to split up severely.
This time, it was claimed in a social media video clip that was going viral that the Igbo organization required contributions from a guy named Comrade Kennedy Iyere in order to promote a South Eastern Nigerian presidential candidate. A significant South-East presidential contender is Mr. Peter Obi of the Labour Party.
Unnamed Ohanaeze officials allegedly sought money in order to attend a conference for the facilitation of an Igbo-American president of Nigeria.
Chief Alex Ogbonnia, a spokesperson for the Prof. George Obiozor-led Ohanaeze, has disputed the assertions, pointing out that the Ohanaeze has consistently been in the vanguard of the movement for a South-East president.
He continued by expressing sorrow for the group’s backing of Atiku Abubakar, the PDP’s presidential candidate, in the general elections of 2019.
He continued by saying that Atiku’s backing at the time—who, by the way, is today the PDP’s presidential nominee—was to blame for the difficulties the Igbo people are currently experiencing.
As the most “fallacious, mendacious and cruel of all the lies aimed at damaging the image of the Igbo as the Judas group that loves money more than human conscience,” Ogbonnia rejected the bribery allegation.
He claimed that the Ohanaeze Ndigbo spread support for a president across all of Nigeria, including to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Sultan of Sokoto His Eminence Muhammadu Sa’adu Abubakar III, Chief E. K. Clarke and Chief Ayo Adebanjo, former president Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, the British High Commission, and many other locations.
He reiterated that he wrote to Atiku to remind him that their support for him in 2019 was the reason for the current struggles of the Igbos while demanding for a president of South East extraction.
“I also wrote to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to remind him that our support for his candidacy in 2019 is the cause of the current Igbo struggles. A quick internet search would show that Ohanaeze had issued multiple news releases pleading with Nigerians and the world community to help the South East in its bid for the presidency.
“On December 13, 2021, I sent an open letter to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, reminding him that the South East is the region that would produce Nigeria’s next president and pleading with him not to run for office in 2023 on the grounds of equity, justice, and fairness.
The Southern and Middle Belt Leaders (SMBLF), led by Chief E. K. Clarke and Chief Nnia Nwodo as the Coordinator General, were the recipients of further advocacy from the Ohanaeze Ndigbo. Chief Ayo Adebanjo, the leader of the Afenifere, and Dr. Pogu Bitrus, the leader of the Middle Belt Forum, among others, are more SMBLF leaders. We are grateful to the SMBLF for taking the unwavering stand to back an Igbo from the South East for the presidency in 2023. We also express our gratitude to Chief Olusegun Obasanjo for hosting us at his Abeokuta home around three times.
“In the viral social media video produced by Comrade Kennedy Iyere, he claimed that Chief Nnia Nwodo’s Ohanaeze Ndigbo sought cash from him in order for him to attend a meeting in Awka for a South Eastern Nigerian president.
The seven state presidents from the seven Ohanaeze States were invited in October 2020 after Chief Iyere contacted Chief Damian Okeke Ogene, the former president of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Anambra State chapter.
“Ogene informed Iyere that members would be traveling from far-off regions, including as Port Harcourt, Owerri, Aba, and Ebonyi, and that it would not be feasible for them to return to their places of origin on the same day. Iyere pledged to provide hotel rooms for the seven people and to cover their transportation expenses.
Iyere was sat among White males at the conference in one hotel in Awka and he stressed the intolerable injustice done to the Igbo by previous Nigerian leaders as well as the fairness of a South Easterner becoming president of Nigeria in 2023.
In a paradoxical way, we were both surprised and intrigued that a non-Igbo and White man was advocating for an Igbo cause. At the conclusion of the meeting, he begged us to manage 70,000 naira (N70,000.00), or 10,000 naira apiece, for transportation expenses.
“Some of us declined the cash, but others reasoned that if we individually turned down the N10,000, it may be misconstrued. Iyere described his experience with the Ohanaeze Ndigbo with depravity and a kindergarten shenanigan, and he said that the Ohanaeze Ndigbo wanted cash from him in order to endorse an Igbo for president.
