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•Gov calls Igbo against Obi outcasts
From Okwe Obi, Abuja and Scholastica Onyeka Makurdi
Igbo Elders Consultative Forum has hailed the endorsement of Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, by Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom.
The Benue governor had announced his support for the former Anambra State governor when he addressed Igbo Community Assembly in Markurdi saying he was ready to sacrifice his senatorial ambition for Obi to win.
He challenged the Igbo to seize the opportunity of Saturday’s polls to work for the election of Obi as Nigeria’s next president even as he flayed those from the South East working agains the LP candidate who he described as a detribalised Nigerian.
He described the Igbo that are against Obi as outcasts.
“This is an opportunity you have to say that an Igbo man from the South East is President because some of us believe in the unity of Nigeria; that is why we accommodate everybody here. So let us not miss this opportunity that God himself is providing. The youths have told me, my own people have told me, stakeholders here, traditional rulers, party people across party lines that Obi’s matter is not about PDP, APC or SDP or any other political party, it is about Nigeria.
“I hear some prominent Igbo personalities castigating Peter Obi for contesting this election, i feel sad. Is it not you the Igbo that are lamenting that you have been marginalized since after the war? An opportunity has come today and you are still complaining, what do you want? What are you looking for? The whole country, North, South, East and West are saying that it is Peter Obi, and you hear some people saying we don’t want it. Haba! Those people should be outcast,” he said.
Speaking on the backdrop of this support, Chairperson of Igbo Elders Consultative Forum, Dr Simon Okeke, at a press briefing, yesterday, in Abuja said anybody from the region against Obi, his deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), should be checked to ascertain the authenticity of his genealogy.
Okeke, who served as Chairman of Police Service Commission, said: “Since our independence in October 1960, this is the best chance of South East to produce a president. Both North, East and West have come to accept that our son Peter Obi is the best out of all the Presidential candidates canvassing for votes to win the presidential election on February 25 2023. Any Onye Igbo thinking otherwise or standing on the fence may be of doubtful genealogy and needs to submits to DNA for proper proof of his or her true parentage.”
Okeke warned separatist groups, threatening to truncate the poll, especially in the South East that their plan would lead to more crisis.
“We request that you come out and be part of the history to vote in Peter Obi and Datti Ahmed to take the mantle of leadership and rebuild our badly divided country, to save the boat from sinking. We need your votes not bullets. In a democracy, your vote is your weapon, not bullet or sit-at-home,” he said.
