Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide has said its chairman, Council of Elders, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, did not call Yoruba rascals as being reported.
In a statement by Dr Chiedozie Ogbonnia, the national publicity secretary, Ohaneze Ndigbo Worldwide, the group explained that Iwuanyanwu referred to political thugs that attacked Igbos in Lagos as rascals, adding that the elder statement would never call Yoruba rascals.
The statement reads, “Our attention has been drawn to the fake news making the rounds that the chairman, Council of Elders, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, (Ahaejiagamba) referred to the Yoruba as political rascals.
“This is a typical falsehood, fabricated by social media entrepreneurs, decorated with wings, expanded with venoms, injected with ethnic nuances, and propelled to fly to various corners, fronts, and heights in order to create inter-ethnic mistrust between the age-long partners in the social, cultural, religious and economic development of Nigeria. Indeed it is a lie from the pit of hell.
“Speaking in Awka, Anambra State on Saturday at the event to mark the one year in office of Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo, the governor of Anambra state, Iwuanyanwu drew the attention of the audience and the general public to the fact that Ndigbo and Yoruba people are neither quarreling nor fighting, implying that the Yoruba are a friendly group of people.
“According to Iwuanyanwu, ‘I want to tell those in Lagos to realize that there is no war between us and the Yoruba’, adding that ‘those who attacked Ndigbo in Lagos recently are rascals who should be arrested’.
“This has mischievously been twisted to imply that ‘Yoruba people are political rascals and that we will fight them.’
“This is quel dommage!’ It is from the insidious minds that wish to create a rift between the Igbo and the Yoruba ethnicities.
“At any time in history, there is often a tug of war between two major groups; mostly the good people with conscience on one hand and the devious insidious minds on the other. However, the moral force of the Godly will always countervail the unconscionable.
“This helps to keep the world in an ontological equilibrium. So, as much as some mischief makers will twist the speech by Iwuanyanwu, the truth remains that Ahaejiagamba holds the Yoruba in very high esteem and he used the Awka event to express it.
“The emphasis is that we must not attribute the ugly event in Lagos to the good people of Yoruba ethnicity, rather, it was the handiwork of rascals, hooligans, charlatans, miscreants, and dregs of Lagos society.”
