Crisis Brews In Igbo Community, Abuja Over Leadership Tussle

A leadership crisis is brewing in the Igbo Community Association, ICA, Abuja, over the authentic position of the association’s president General (PG) and its new executives.

Three factions are laying claims to the leadership of the Igbo Community Association, Abuja.

This is even as the former president General, Hon Leonard Ebo’s faction, led by its new executives, Mr. Ikenna Ellis Ezenekwe, has dismissed the emergence of another factional president General by Eze Ibe Nwosu’s faction, insisting that the election that produced him as the new president General of the association in November 2024 was by the association’s constitutional provision.

Ezenekwe claimed that his election as the highest decision-making body of the Igbos, the Ime Obi, ratified the authentic president-general. He added that the association wrote to all the relevant arms, including the Eze in Council, Ime Obi, and Ohaneze, notifying them of the election.

Ezenekwe, who said he was ready to work with the Eze Ibe Nwosu faction and other factions for the peace, development, and interest of the Igbos, denied any sponsorship by external forces to destabilise the association and the Igbos in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja.

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He noted that after he was elected the new president-general, his executives paid a courtesy visit to Eze Ibe Nwosu’s palace and were warmly received and prayed for. He expressed shock that a few weeks after the visit, the Eze appointed his cronies as officers of the association, which, according to him, was resisted.

Ezenekwe further claimed that after the era of the late Hon. Mike Okoye as ICA PG, there has never been an election to produce the PG, insisting that the PGS have been unilaterally appointed by the Eze, Ibe Nwosu.

He said, “Since the formation of ICA, after the era of Mike Okoye as PG, there has never been any election; the PG is being appointed by Eze Ibe Nwosu, disregarding constitutional democracy as enshrined in the constitution.

After several years of appointment and 12 years of the former PG tenue Hon. Leonard Ebo, members began to agitate and clamour for an election which the Eze Igbo 1 never wanted and refused to allow for election; rather, he unilaterally announced the removal of the former PG, prompting his vice president and secretary General to take over, when they refused and we resisted him and insisted we must have an election and produced the current executives led by my humble self.”

Unfolding his blueprint, Ezenekwe said he would focus on the harmony, unity, and economic transformation of the Igbo people endowed with trade, commerce, and technological development.

He called on the federal government to develop a seaport in the southeast to fast-track economic development in the region.

Speaking, the immediate past President General, Hon. Leonard Ebo, denied any financial infraction against him, adding that he handed over 200,000 to the new executives.

He alleged that the crisis started when the Eze in council refused to allow for an election’s free and fair conduct to produce a democratically elected executive rather than an appointment by the Eze.