The Southern and Middle Belt Leaders’ Forum has described the governor of Delta State, Senator Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, as a traitor for accepting his nomination as Vice Presidential Candidate to Atiku Abubakar in the forthcoming 2023 general election.
The group said Okowa was among the governors who agreed that power should be rotated to the southern part of Nigeria based on the principle of fairness, justice, and equity, adding that accepting to be the running mate of a northern candidate was unfortunate.
In a joint statement by the Leader, SMBLF/PANDEF, Chief Edwin Clark; Leader, Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo; President-General, Middle Belt Forum, Dr. Dru Bitrus, and the President-General, Ohaneze Ndigbo Worldwide, George Obiozor, they said Okowa was jeopardising the political future of the people from the southern part of the country.
The statement partly read, “It is unspeakable and quite disappointing that Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, who is currently Chairman of the South-South Governors’ Forum, and a native of Owa-Alero in Ika North-East Local Government Area (one of the Igbo-speaking areas) of Delta State, would exhibit such barefaced unreliability.
“It bears recalling that the 17 governors of the southern states of Nigeria, both of the Peoples Democratic Party and the All Progressives Congress, under the chairmanship of the Governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN, met in Asaba, the capital of Delta State on May 11, 2021, and took far-reaching decisions, including that based on the principles of fairness, equity, and justice, the presidency should rotate to the South, at the end of the statutory eight years of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure.
“This very Governor Okowa was the host of that historic meeting. The southern governors later met again in Lagos on July 5, where they reaffirmed their decision, and again in Enugu, on September 16, to restate the call that the presidency should rotate to the South in 2023.”
It is, therefore, most unfortunate that the Governor of Delta State, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, who should know better, accepted his appointment as running mate to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
“We do not have anything personal against Ifeanyi Okowa but his action is treacherous and tantamount to a despicable pawning of the political future of the people of southern Nigeria.”
-We’ll support Tinubu – Lagos Igbo group-
Members of Ohanaeze Ndigbo in Lagos have said they will support the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
The President of the Ohaneze Ndigbo in Lagos, Chief Solomon Aguene, who disclosed this in a telephone interview with newsmen on Thursday, explained that since the group was in support of a second term for Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State, there was nothing wrong in supporting his (Sanwo-Olu) presidential candidate.
Aguene explained that Ohanaeze’s decision was based on the need for Ndigbo in Lagos to benefit from the dividends of democracy in the state.
He said, “We are in Lagos, we enjoy Lagos more than any other tribe and we have all agreed that we will vote for and follow Babajide Sanwo-Olu, and support the APC at the centre.
“For me and for the Igbo people in Lagos, our candidate is Babajide Sanwo-Olu, and once you have the governor of the state you cherish so much, you must also try to make sure that the same party emerges in Abuja, so that you can get whatever you want for your people in democracy, that is what I am doing as President.
“We will support whoever is the candidate of Sanwo-Olu. The decision was made because it matters to our lives and destiny, and everything we are doing. Lagos State is like the second home of Ndigbo.
“This is where we have our highest investment and the highest population of Igbo in the world. If we have a governor that is caring for us, and if the other one (Tinubu) in Abuja is with us, I think we will have life easier and better.