2023: Stakeholders Attack Amaechi For Claiming ‘I’m Igbo’

Some Igbo stakeholders, Sunday, reacted to claims by transport minister Rotimi Amaechi that he is Igbo, both in blood and spirit.

Mr Amaechi had said after his declaration to run for the president of Nigeria ahead of 2023 general elections that, “I’m Igbo. I’m from Ikwere. My name is Chibuike Amaechi.”

THE WHISTLER reports that Ikwere is in Rivers State, but extends to Imo State. It was further gathered that Amaechi’s Ikwere was severed from Imo State as a federal government’s ploy to weaken Southeast during and after the Biafra War.

“By allotting Ikwere to Rivers State, it geographically becomes a part of the Southsouth region of the country.

“That justified why Amaechi is a former governor of River State in South-South,” Moses Eze, a researcher, told our correspondent in Owerri.

Joe Igbokwe, via his verified Facebook page,said, “Hon Minister of Transport, former two-term Speaker, Rivers State House of Assembly, and former two-term Governor of Rivers State, Chibuike Amaechi, once said publicly that he is not Igbo. Why this sudden u- turn now sir?

“You cannot deny us in the market place in the afternoon and come to us in the night to pay allegiance. This is not the hallmark of a serious and a decent person. We are not babies sir.”

Charles Odo, a politician, said, “Amaechi’s claims of being Igbo amount to selfishness, inordinate ambition. He simply wants to use that clandestine and evil machination to become president of Nigeria because of efforts to deny a southeasterner the ticket.

“No doubt he is Igbo, but geographically belongs to South South. They should leave their gimmicks and allow a southeasterner to also preside over Nigeria as other regions have done, or let them go out of the Nigerian super-structure. It’s no big deal.”