By Linus Aleke
The President of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Lagos State Chapter, Chief Sunday Ossai said that the Apex Igbo socio-cultural organization is not factionalized.
He explained that before the election that brought him to office, his predecessor, Chief Solomon Ogbonna Aguene was impeached for gross misconduct, and disrespect for elders in the association.
Chief Ossai who spoke to our correspondent in a telephone chat noted: ‘To use the word factionalized is misleading and wrong. It is my belief that the Ohaneze Ndigbo Lagos State Chapter, of which I am the president is the only Ohaneze we have in Lagos. For example, those agitating for Biafra are there, does that mean that Nigeria is factionalized? We have only one Ohaneze, whichof I am the president, let me explain the meaning of Ohaneze to you. It means the King and the people, that is the real meaning of Ohaneze. The King and the people decided to join the effort together, to improve and enhance the progress of Ndigbo. My own Ohaneze is the king and the people and we are affiliated to Enugu, which is the parent body of Ohaneze Ndigbo Worldwide. The Headquarters of Ohaneze Ndigbo Worldwide is in Enugu. It is my humble self that Enugu recognizes because Enugu came to Lagos to monitor the conduct of the election that brought me to the office and the election was very peaceful successfulully.
“It was keenly contested and at the end of the contest, I emerged the winner of the election, and was later sworn in. Before, my election, there was a vacuum in Ohaneze Ndigbo Lagos State Chapter, because the former President was impeached for gross misconduct. He almost turned our secretariat into a chalet, at a stage he was not going to his house any longer. The secretariat of Ohaneze became his second home, and he uses the place to do all manner of things.
“He was also disrespectful to the elders and this culminated in his impeachment. Before the impeachment, he had only one week left in his four years tenure”.
Chief Ossai said the inordinate ambition of the former president to continue to hold on to power led him to procure a court order to extend his stay in office for additional four years.
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He added that before the court order, the former president tried to lobby members to extend his tenure by two years under the pretense that COVID-19 and End the SARS crisis ate deep into his four years term.
He also disclosed that the Lagos State electoral committee led by Oliver Akubueze, which conducted the election that brought him to the office was constituted by the then president, Chief Solomon Ogbonna Eugene.
On the position of its constitution on the tenure of executive,, he said: “You are talking about the bye-law of Ohaneze Ndigbo Lagos State Chapter, the tenure of office is four years. He was sworn in on 16th June 2018, by June 2022, it was four years. And the bye-law of Ohaneze Ndigbo Lagos stipulates only one term of four years for the executive. Nobody had ever done two terms. It is only one tenure”.
Chief Ossai concluded that Ohaneze’s constitution didn’t provide for one more day beyond four years for the executive.
