Ohanaeze Disowns Youth Wing Over Report That Mbaka Is Billed For Overseas Studies

“Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council (OYC) is not known to Ohanaeze Ndigbo and to that extent is an impostor and does not have the authority to speak in the name of Ohanaeze Ndigbo at any level,” Enugu State chapter of the pan-Igbo group said Thursday.

The reaction followed a statement issued by the youth council claiming that ‘there is tension in Enugu over plans to send Fr Ejike Mbaka, the spiritual director of the Adoration, Enugu, Nigeria on a course outside the country.

OYC had claimed Mbaka was being sent on a prolonged course abroad while his Adoration Ground would be converted to a seminary school.

Mbaka is currently suspended from activities of the Catholic Church for making political assertions.

The disowning of the OYC was contained in a statement signed by Ohanaeze-Enugu chapter’s president, Prof Fred O. Eze, and secretary, Dcn Malachy Chuma Ochie.

It read, “The attention of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Enugu State, has been drawn to a statement currently making the rounds on social media, and purportedly issued by Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council Worldwide (OYC), regarding the volte-face between Rev. Fr. Camillus Ejike Mbaka and the Catholic Diocese of Enugu.

“The statement, which was signed by the duo of Mazi Okwu Nnabuike and
Obinna Achionye as president and recretary respectively, is not only misleading but also scandalous; and Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Enugu State, strongly condemns it and hereby dissociates itself from the statement.

“For the avoidance of doubt, OYC is not known to Ohanaeze Ndigbo and to that extent is an impostor and does not have the authority to speak in the name of Ohanaeze Ndigbo at any level.

“Ohanaeze Ndigbo is not a religious organization; and to that extent does not involve itself in matters bordering on religious denominational disagreements.

“It is, therefore, embarrassing and mischievous for any group of people to hide under the banner of Ohanaeze Ndigbo to meddle in matters that have no bearing to the mandate of Ohanaeze Ndigbo.”

Ohanaeze said the Catholic Church is ‘a respected global institution with well-established internal mechanisms for resolving its own problems’, adding that, “We, therefore, urge our people to disregard the statement by the nondescript OYC. Ohanaeze Ndigbo will not hesitate to seriously sanction any group that would henceforth bring the organization to public ridicule.”