A group, Igbos for Progressive And United Nationhood (IPAN) has advised the Igbo sociocultural group, Ohaneze Ndigbo, to stop blackmailing presidential hopefuls from other regions who declare interest to contest for the Office of the President in 2023.
IPAN in a statement made available to news men on Wednesday stated that even though it strongly believes that 2023 was the perfect time for a Nigerian President of Igbo extraction to emerge, it did not believe in arm twisting Nigerians to make an Igbo man President, or telling other aspirants from outside Igbo land to drop their presidential ambitions.
In the statement, the National President of IPAN, Comrade Lawrence Onuzulike stated that every Nigerian who meets the constitutional requirement to contest for the office of the President was eligible to do so regardless of the region he or she comes from.
It therefore stated, that no one should blackmail anybody from throwing his hat into the ring.
According to Onuzulike, “Ohaneze as pan-Igbo group should be at the forefront of rallying support for Igbo aspirants in their various political parties like IPAN is undertaking instead of advising or begging interested aspirants from other regions not to contest.
“I am aware that since 1999, an Igbo man has always contested in Nigeria’s presidential election even when some political parties zoned their presidential ticket to other zones. All we should be doing is simply to appeal to Nigerians both political elites and the masses to support Igbo candidates this time around for the sake of equity and fairness”.
