Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, the apex Igbo socio-cultural organization, has denied that its chieftain, Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, ever referred to Yorubas as political rascals.
According to reports, Iwuanyanwu referred to Yorubas as political rascals while speaking at an event commemorating Governor Charles Soludo’s one-year tenure in Awka, Anambra State, on Saturday.
But, according to a statement issued on Sunday by Ohanaeze’s National Publicity Secretary, Alex Ogbonnia, Iwuanyanwu did not make such a remark.
Ohaneze insisted that the report was a typical hoax concocted by social media entrepreneurs to sow discord among Nigeria’s long-standing partners in religious, cultural, social, and economic development.
According to the statement, Iwuanyanwu only drew the audience’s and the general public’s attention to the fact that the Ndigbo and Yoruba people were not fighting or quarreling.
According to the organization’s Chairman of the Council of Elders, the Yoruba were a friendly group of people.
The statement read in part:
Our attention has been drawn to the fake news making the rounds that the Chairman, Council of Elders, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, referred to the Yoruba as political rascals.
Iwuanyanwu only said, “I want to tell those in Lagos [State] to realize that there is no war between us and the Yorubas”, stating that “those who attacked Ndigbo in Lagos recently are rascals who should be arrested.