Raphael Ede, Enugu
The Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide has advised the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) to stop its antagonism of the Ohanaeze in the overall interest of Ndigbo.
The apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation said this on Saturday in a statement issued by the President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Nnia Nwodo, and made available to Daily Sun in Enugu State.
In the statement signed by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Chief Emeka Attamah, Nwodo decried the incessant attacks on Ohanaeze Ndigbo by IPOB at any slightest opportunity.
Nwodo regretted that even after he had condescended and repeatedly made clarifications on its stand on IPOB and efforts he has been making to seek redress for the organisation, the IPOB was still hell bent on blindly accusing Ohanaeze of complicity in its woes.
He cited the example of IPOB deriding Ohanaeze for its silence over the proposed Operation PYTHON DANCE 3 by the military on the same page of a newspaper the National Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Uche Achi-Okpaga, was condemning the exercise and calling on the military to cancel it as it was not conducive to hold it in Igboland now.
The release said that Ohanaeze Ndigbo had resisted the temptation to join issues with IPOB to avoid further exacerbation of the situation that might jeopardise the interest of the Igbo and make them a laughing stock to the rest of the country.
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Ohanaeze Ndigbo, while thanking elder statesman, Prof. Ben Nwabueze, for his untiring efforts to broker a peace between it and IPOB, wondered at the silence of reputable Igbo sons and daughters in the face of the the attacks and obvious provocation of the umbrella body by IPOB and asked them to call it to order.
On the proposed exercise, the Ohanaeze further called on the military to put it on hold as coming so soon on the heels of a similar exercise in which Igbo sons lost their lives, could stir up unsavoury moments.