Amid the controversy surrounding the upcoming Ohaneze Ndigbo President-General election, the Igbo Elders Council (IEC) has endorsed the candidacy of former Inspector General of Police, Sir Mike Okiro for the position.
There has been several calls for Okiro who is from Imo State to withdraw from the race as the position is reserved for Igbos in Rivers State. The Independent People of Biafra (IPOB) in a direct message to the former police chief on Wednesday, warned Okiro to stay away from the Ohaneze presidency as doing so could cause division among Ndigbos while a court judgement also ruled that he is not qualified to run for the PG of the apex Igbo socio-cultural organization.
But in a statement on Wednesday by the IEC, the group threw its weight behind Okiro, saying he was eminently qualified to become the next President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo.
The statement signed by Nze Uchechukwu Enweremmadu on behalf of the Council, stressed that Okiro was most suitable to lead Ndigbo as he is the “only living retired senior police officer to have worked with nine heads of state and Presidents of Nigeria.”
“Sir Mike Mbama Okiro is eminently qualified to become the President-General of Ohaneze Ndigbo due to his excellent track records of solving the nation’s problems time and again,” the Council said.
“He is the only living senior police officer in Nigeria to have served nine presidents having worked with General Mohammadu Buhari, in 1983, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida in 1985, Gen Sani Abacha in 1990, Gen Abdulsalami Abubakar in 1998, President Olusegun Obasanjo, in 1999, President Musa Yar’Adua in 2007, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan in 2010, President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, when he was the governor of Lagos State and Mike Okiro was his Commissioner of Police.
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“As a police officer, he was able to curb the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC)’s incessant crisis in Lagos State that could have resulted in much more serious economic losses to Lagos, but his tactical wisdom in handling of that crisis saved Lagos State and the entire Southwest region from serious breakdown of law and order.
“His determination to restore normalcy in Lagos eventually repositioned the entire region to become the best regional economy in the country.
“Sir Okiro conceptualized the Niger Delta Amnesty Programme which halted further bloodshed of Nigerian youths in the Niger Delta region. That action saved the lives of tens of thousands of Nigeria’s Niger Delta youths from what could have become the greatest tragedy of our time from Nigeria’s own military onslaught on Nigeria’s youths and curtailed the excesses of the ex-militants while engaging them in gun battle. This very action also helped improved Nigeria’s economy.
“Ndi-Igbo will surely benefit from Sir Mike Okiro’s wealth of experience.
“Wth Mike Okiro’s track records of helping to bring peace and economic stability to two geopolitical zones of South-West and South-South of Nigeria, we believe he can replicate same in the South-East of Nigeria and indeed all Igbo land by ending the isolation of Igbos in Nigeria”.
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