2023: Ohanaeze Denies Bribery Demands For S’East Presidency

By Adadainfo

News making the rounds that Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide demanded payments from one Comrade Kennedy Iyere as a condition to support a Nigerian president from the South East is false.

Ohanaeze was reacting to a claim by one Iyere that Ohanaeze Ndigbo, led by Chief Nnia Nwodo, demanded payments from him to attend a meeting in Awka for a Nigerian president from the South East.

Ohanaeze, in a reaction through its national publicity secretary, Dr Alex Ogbonnia, described the claim as fallacious.

Ohanaeze, in the release in Enugu, stated that, “This is the most fallacious, mendacious and callous of all the falsehoods aimed at tarnishing the image of the Igbo as the Judas category that values money more than human conscience.

“A simple search reveals that Ohanaeze made numerous press releases urging Nigerians and the international community to lend support to the quest by the South East for presidency.

“The Ohanaeze Ndigbo further propagated the advocacy to the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders (SMBLF), led by Chief E K Clarke, and Chief Nnia Nwodo as the coordinator general. Other leaders of the SMBLF include Chief Ayo Adebanjo, the leader of the Afenifere; Dr Pogu Bitrus, leader, Middle Belt Forum, among others.”

Ohanaeze however said they had an encounter with Mr Iyere in Awka, but nothing about financial inducement came up.

According to Dr Ogbonia, “In October 2020, Chief Damian Okeke Ogene, former president of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Anambra State chapter, was contacted by Chief Iyere to invite the seven state presidents from the seven Ohanaeze states.

“Ogene explained to Iyere that members would be coming to Awka from distant places, such as Port Harcourt, Owerri, Aba, Ebonyi and that it would not be possible for them to go back to their locations on the same day.

“Iyere promised to secure hotel accommodation for the seven persons, and that he would also pay for their transport costs. At the meeting in one hotel at Awka, Iyere was seated with white men and he highlighted the unbearable injustice to the Igbo by the past Nigerian leaders and the equity in a South Easterner to become the president of Nigeria come 2023.

“Paradoxically, we were very delighted and also curious that a non-Igbo and white men were championing an Igbo cause. At the end of the meeting, he pleaded with us to manage N70, 000.00; that is N10, 000 each, as transport costs.

“Some of us refused the money while some others reasoned that it could be misinterpreted we rejected the money.”

Dr Ogbonnia said he was ‘shocked by the depravity and a kindergaten shenanigan with which Iyere painted his encounter with the Ohanaeze Ndigbo: that Ohanaeze Ndigbo demanded payment from him in order to support an Igbo for presidency’.

He added that, “This is the most morally reprehensible fabrication from the pit of hell. Surely, we failed to attend his subsequent meetings for two reasons: through a Freudian slip, a stench character deficit became manifest in his maneuvers in Awka; second, he espoused hate, invectives and unwholesome remarks against our then president general, Chief Nnia Nwodo, simply because, according to him, Nwodo did not pick his phone call.

“In the clip that has gone viral, several eminent Igbo sons were mentioned in bad light. Comrade Kennedy Iyere is a mischief-maker, name dropper and a mundane predator, best to be avoided.”