Ohanaeze counters ‘5th columnists’, insists Obi won 2023 presidential election

 

The apex Igbo cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has insisted that the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr. Peter Obi, won the presidential polls and should be declared winner.

The group also urged the members of the public to discountenance a message from the a group it called the ‘fifth columnists’ which masquerades as a factional Ohanaeze which said it is not time for Obi to be president.

Ohanaeze, in a statement signed by the national publicity secretary, Dr. Alex Ogbaonnia, stated that Obi won but, however, through INEC’s alleged manipulation, Tinubu won.

The socio-cultural group, therefore, appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari, the international community, to prevail on the INEC boss, Prof Mahmood Yakubu to do the needful to respect the wish of the people.

“Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide thanks the good people of Nigeria for their courage, steadfastness and the ultimate discharge of their civic duties by exercising their franchise for a better Nigeria at the presidential and National Assembly elections on Saturday, February 25 and Sunday, February 26, 2023.

“The Secretary General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Ambassador Okey Emuchay, MFR expresses immense delight that the youths of Nigeria walked their talk by voting for Peter Obi and Datti Ahmed of the Labour Party, overwhelmingly across the country.  

“Going by the results so far released, Nigerians have fully expressed their delight for a quantum leap from the asphyxiating ocean of darkness and want to an inspiring gravy train of light and prosperity.

“It is most regrettable that some agents of darkness are bent on using the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to test the will of Nigerians.

“For instance:The National Chairman of the Labour Party, Julius Abure, yesterday, raised alarm that some “officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission in Lagos and Delta states have refused to upload the results of the presidential elections collated in various polling units in the states unto INEC’s Central Server. 

“The Chairman, in a statement said that most of the polling units affected were areas where the LP candidate, Peter Obi, had recorded victory.

 The chairman listed places like Agege, Kosofe, Oshodi-Isolo, Surulere, and Ibeju Lekki, in Lagos where results showed that Labour Party won convincingly and INEC officials had failed to upload results. He added that ‘they were using the police to drive away the Labour Party agents and supporters out of the venue”. The police asserted that “they had the firm instruction from the INEC headquarters not to upload”

“Similarly, Chief Bode George alerted that the “INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu sneaked into Lagos at night of the election and met with some unknown persons in Ikoyi Lagos”.  The most curious, worrisome and threatening is that Yakubu “arrived and left in a private jet owned by Bola Ahmed Tinubu”

“Mr. Olawale Okunniyi of the Labour Party reports of gunshots in parts of Lagos, and that its chieftain, Prof Pat Utomi, and some others have been held hostage and election results being manipulated at collation centres in parts of the state. Evidently, “Nigerians have demonstrated that they want Peter Obi to be their president by voting for him”.

“Governor Nyesom Wike, after several months of melodramatic political ambivalence and pretentious morality was confronted with a “stark reality of a defeat even in the polling units in his compound in Worji, where LP scored 323 votes against APC and PDP’s 5 and 2 votes respectively.

“Incidences include “Obio/Akpor, Khana, Eleme, Obigbo, Rumukoro and several other areas where Labour Party was clearly leading in virtually all the polling units with very wide margins”.

“The National Leader of Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo has warned that “if INEC dares to rig the election, Nigerians should protest seriously for international communities to intervene”. He added that it will be nunc dimities for Nigeria.

“Professor Yakubu is reminded that Nigerians went into this election based his on assurances that the deployment of BVAS by INEC was a perfect antidote to electoral malpractices in Nigeria. It will therefore be very unfortunate if what is going on across Nigeria is allowed to continue. It is a betrayal of trust which the millions of Nigerians will surely revolt against.

“Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) states: You can fool some of the people all the time; you can also fool all the people some of the time; but, you can’t fool all the people all the time”. Just as J F Kennedy (1917-1963) states: Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.

“Mr. Peter Obi has often insisted that the Almighty God is only using him as a vessel to rescue and lift Nigeria from its current tailspin. In other words, the victory is yours and must be defended by all. 

“We call on President Muhammadu Buhari and the International community to prevail on Mahmood Yakubu not to lend hand to the thickening Frankenstein monster that first devours its creator by respecting the will of the people,” Ohanaeze appeals.