Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, the apex Igbo socio-cultural organization, has come hard on the Federal Government over its threat to impose a state of emergency on Anambra State.
Reports hold that the President Muhammadu Buhari government had through the Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Abubakar Malami hinted that the insecurity in the State could lead to a state of emergency ahead of the next month governorship election.
Malami’s statement has been receiving knocks from several political parties, as well as other organizations.
This time, Ohanaeze Ndigbo said it was shocked that the FG could even think of such a plan in the first place.
In a statement by its Secretary-General, Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro, he described it as a ploy to impose an All Progressives Congress, APC, governor on Anambra State.
He said he had expected that President Muhammadu Buhari should have declared a state of emergency in Kaduna, Katsina, Borno, Zamfara, or Yobe states before threatening to declare a state of emergency in Anambra.
“We are astounded that the APC-led Federal Government is writing the scripts for the hijack of the electoral process in Anambra Governorship elections.
“The threats to announce a State of Emergency in Anambra and replace Governor Willie Obiano with sole Administrator from the North is the gimmicks of Governor Hope Uzodinma-led National Electoral Committee on Anambra Guber elections to install an APC Governor by November 6th, 2021 Governorship election in Anambra,” the Ohanaeze scribe said.
He added that “Ndigbo earlier foresaw these moves to use the instrumentality of the Federal Government to install an APC Governor in Anambra.
“Our suspicion has been reinforced with the recent Presidential threats to declare a state of emergency in Anambra.
“It is a reaffirmation that the insecurity challenges in the South-East were sponsored and man-made.
“Even the operation Golden Dawn of the Army was a deliberate action; the threats from the Presidency are all politics, so Anambra people should resist this devilish plot of importing a sole administrator from the North to impose an APC Governor in Anambra.
“This is a wake-up call and a bitter lesson for the South-East Governors to rise and voice out the truth to President Muhammadu Buhari on his deficiencies and flaws in governance. A decorated slave fetching firewood for the roasting of another slave should be aware that his own life is not safe.
“If Governor Willie Obiano is removed under the guise of a State of emergency and replaced with a Northern Sole administrator, it will definitely spread to other states.”
He said it was strange that while the Federal Government was helping APC Governors in Kaduna, Katsina, Zamfara, Borno and Yobe States to fight insurgents and terrorists, it was threatening a state of emergency in Anambra.
He alleged that “there is pressure on Governor Obiano to either decamp to APC or be replaced by an APC Northern Sole Administrator under the guise of state of emergency but Ndigbo will resist this onslaught against Anambra people.”