Ikwerre Youth Movement, IYM, a socio-ethnic group championing the cause of Ikwerre people has called on the vice-presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the just-concluded presidential election, Mr Peter Obi, to apologise to the former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, if he (Obi) could not condemn Rochas Okorocha’s statement.
The former governor of Rivers State, on May 21, while speaking in an interview with The Sun, attributed this to the fact that the Igbo have nothing to bring to the table in 2023.
According to him: “I don’t know what they will do now for voting against the APC.
“For refusing to support the APC, they cannot come to the table to demand the presidency slot.
“For people like us in the APC, if the Igbo had come and voted Buhari, they would boldly tell Mr President and the National Chairman of the party that presidency should go the Southeast since the South-south; South-west and North-west have produced the president. What argument would the Southeast come up with now to convince anybody that they deserve the slot for 2023 president?”
He said only possible way for an Igbo President to emerge is if a pressure political group that will reach the grassroots is formed.
“They need to bring caucus together, set up structures at the states and local government levels that will be meeting regularly.
“They also need to fund those structures. If these things happen, APC will continue to rule the country but I have a problem with the fact that everybody is not completely involved. When I say that everybody is not completely involved, it is not that because people are holding meetings, there are not anywhere people are holding meetings more than the other, but just that we need to play more party politics.”
However, the former Anambra State Governor while commenting on the statement attributed to Amaechi after a lecture/book presentation in honour of Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike in Port Harcourt wondered why Amaechi who is not from South East would want to speak for the zone.
He said: “Amaechi is not from the South East, so he cannot speak for us.
“He is not in any position to make such statements because even him that is in APC, he did not contribute anything to the success of that election.
“He did not even achieve anything in his own state. Those of us from the South East who are from the PDP contributed to the success of our party”.
Speaking further, he said: “For example, PDP in my state got 95percent. They (APC) didn’t even get 25percent in Rivers State. So he is not competent to speak on the Presidency in 2023”.
However, Okorocha had, after his inauguration into the National Assembly, advised leaders of the region (South-East) to reach out to other regions if they must produce a President in 2023.
While speaking in Port Harcourt on Tuesday, chairman of IYM in Emohua, Sir Lucky Worlu, urged Obi to condemn Okorocha on the statement or apologise to their son Amaechi immediately.
He explained that what Amaechi said was the true position on how the South-Eastern region would produce a President in the next four years, calling on Ohanaeze Ndi Igbo to commence consultations early.
He said: “What Rochas Okorocha said has vindicated our son, Amaechi, that Igbo people need to play national politics.
Speaking further, he said: “If Okorocha could corroborate this and his brother Obi will not condemn it, it means something is wrong.
According to him: “We are using this moment to call on Peter Obi to apologise to our son, Chibuike Amaechi, for the attack. Our son is still very much relevant and has done enough for the people of the state and we love him.”
