OHANAEZE NDIGBO: Nwodo’s emergence illegal, unacceptable- Group

The emergence of John Nnia Nwobodo as leader of Ohanaeze Ndigbo in the just concluded Ohanaeze Ndigbo General Assembly election has been challenged.

The rejection of the outcome of the election by a group led by Enechi Onyia (SAN), perhaps, sets the stage for another protracted leadership crisis, if not well managed.

Speaking on Thursday, Onyia said he had filed a lawsuit at the Enugu State High Court challenging the propriety of the election. He described the exercise that produced Nwodo as “a nullity and unacceptable.”

He also decried the quality of leadership that had steered the affairs of the Igbo nation and lumped all those that had led them in the past 16 years as “self-serving leaders”.

The crisis within Ohanaeze, he claimed was responsible for “five cases scattered in all the states in the zone,” adding, “in the interest of the people, we decided to allow Igariwey to lead up to January 2017.”

“The agreement was that there shall be an election committee where Igariwey’s executive will contribute seven members, while that of Obioha will contribute five members and representation by the state governors,” he noted.

Shedding more light on why his group is aggrieved, Onyia said, the implementation of the agreement became impossible and so “the caretaker committee went to court’’.

“We asked the court to declare that Igariwey has no constitutional right to conduct any election into the executives of the organisation because his term had expired.

“At the court hearing, after the purported election, counsel to the respondents, Chief James Ikenyi (SAN) hid from the court the fact that his clients had conducted the election irrespective of court action.

“But as far as we are concerned, what they did was an illegal act. The election has not held. They are prostituting Ohanaeze and it will be resisted,” he said.

Among other reliefs sought, the group seeks as follows:

“An order restraining the defendants from further usurpation of the powers and functions of the executive of the organisation contrary to its constitution.
“An order granting that the Igbo `Leaders of Thought’ led by Prof. Ben Nwabueze and or Chief Mbazulike Amaechi organise an election that will elect officers of the organisation nationwide.’’

The court presided by Justice A. O. Onovo has adjourned the matter to March 1, for hearing.

Meanwhile, the development controverts an earlier report which claimed that “The Igbo Leaders of Thought, a group led by an elder statesman, Prof. Ben Nwabueze, on Wednesday asked an Enugu State High Court to nullify the election and sack the newly-elected Nwodo-led national executive committee”.

In a statement he signed himself; Nwabueze denied any such thing, describing the report as “completely false, unfounded as well as downright mischievous and malicious”.

He said his group was yet to get copies of the originating processes in the case in order to find out who the real plaintiffs in the court action are and their names.

“We hereby state categorically that, until we read the above news reports, we were unaware of any such court action or of any plan or intention to institute same. Neither I, as Chairman of the Igbo Leaders of Thought nor Professor Ejike (a candidate at the said election), as Deputy Chairman, knew anything about the court action. Neither did we authorise anyone or group to institute such a suit on behalf and/or in the name of Igbo Leaders of Thought,” Nwabueze said.

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