Apex Igbo socio-cultural group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, has cautioned politicians to stop fighting dirty over the 2023 presidential tickets of political parties.

It draws inference that the signing of the electoral bill into law by President Muhammadu Buhari could have triggered a fire-fight, letting all hell loose, and causing tension and anxiety to the beneficiaries and sponsors of electoral frauds and manipulation.

This, the group added, points to the same scenario in the past, but with the perpetrators now resorting to fake news, “causing confusion in all the political parties”.

“Our suspicion has been reinforced by the antics of exponents of dirty politics, through their recent news flying in the social media, which is one of the numerous strategies craftily designed by desperate politicians to destroy the ruling party and pitch the various southerners against each other, then cause confusion and put the ruling party in disarray, ahead of APC convention and subsequent primaries and general elections,” Ohaneze said in a statement by its secretary-general, Okechukwu Isiguzoro.

It added, “We have reached out to appropriate authorities in APC over the reportedly micro-zoning of Apc presidential to a particular zone (South-West), and also the similar news that President Buhari had sacked the Buni-led APC caretaker committee.

“Since APC has cleared the air on Buhari sacking Buni, describing it as fake news, they need to clear the air on the zoning of the presidential ticket to the South-West.

“All Igbo presidential hopefuls from the seven Igbo speaking states are still in the race for the APC presidential ticket, and Ohanaeze outreach committee on 2023 Igbo presidency project will pick presidential forms for all intending Igbo presidential hopefuls, whether in PDP or APC, from the seven Igbo speaking states, including Anioma in Delta and Rivers”.
“We call on South-West presidential aspirants to play by the rules, except if they have chosen to play dirty.
“We are happy that Afenifere has endorsed 2023 for Ndigbo. Likewise, the Pan Niger/Delta organisation,” exclusion of Igbo from the 2023 presidential election through the extraordinary anti-democratic techniques and tactics in APC presidential primaries, is an open invitation for chaos, anarchy, and violence, with the high level of insecurity and insurgency in the country.

“Denial of Igbo Presidency in 2023 will sink Nigeria and her potential, a country which Igbos have built since 1960 independence.”
“Such denial of Igbo will be an ill-wind that will blow nobody any good,” the group concluded.

Meanwhile, following the worsening scarcity of Petroleum Motor Spirit (PMS) in the country, Ohanaeze has also called for the immediate resignation of President Muhammadu Buhari as the Minister of Petroleum Resources.

Its Secretary-General, Okechukwu Isiguzoro, said Buhari should appoint “a more competent person to tackle the challenges and create more opportunities to end the dominant cartel leverages in the oil and gas sector”.

Isiguzoro said Buhari’s continued stay as the minister would lead to more hardship for Nigerians.
In a statement, he noted: “The burden of leadership on President Buhari is an enormous chore and additional responsibility as Minister of Petroleum will be a loophole for unpatriotic elements to sabotage and inflict untold hardship on Nigerians.

“Nigerians are facing difficulties now, and additional hikes in prices of petroleum products will make life miserable for Nigerians but enrich a few unpatriotic elements that control the market forces in the petroleum sector.

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“The situation in the country now is very pathetic. The return of long queues at petrol filling stations, and return of Black Market on the streets, are very worrisome, and all efforts should be geared towards finding lasting solutions to ensure that these outrageous prices for the petroleum products won’t spark national protests against the Federal Government, which must be avoided.

“The news of adulterated petroleum products might be a scam, and the avenue for the cartel controlling the market forces in the petroleum sector used to create artificial scarcity in other to increase the prices of petroleum products for their selfish agenda and inflict untold hardships on Nigerians to destabilise the country and additional cost to governance.

“Federal Government should search inwardly for a competent person who will replace President Buhari as the Minister of Petroleum as soon as possible.”