Ohanaeze Distances Self From Asaba Easter Retreat

The Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide has distanced itself from a purported Igbo Retreat scheduled between March 30 and April 2, 2024 in Asaba, Delta State.

The National Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Dr Alex Ogbonnia, said the pan-Igbo group would have ignored the “hare-brained Igbo Easter Retreat as the highest mark of rascality and insensibility but since silence may be misconstrued by the gullible public as giving validity to an orchestrated aberration, this rebuttal becomes very imperative”.

Dr Ogbonnia stated that, “Ohanaeze Ndigbo notes with dismay that the mischief-makers who masquerade on the invaluable footprints of Ohanaeze Ndigbo for perverse interests fail to appreciate the profound emotional attachment the Igbo owe to Ohanaeze; and that such a sacred Igbo identity should not be desecrated on the exuberances of some social deviants and wary transgressors.”

The release recalled that Ohanaeze Ndigbo held an Igbo Retreat with the theme “Ako bu Ije” in Enugu on March 27, 2024 with scholarly papers presented on moving Igboland forward, adding that, “It is therefore insensitive for a genuine Ohanaeze Ndigbo to organize a retreat on Easter Saturday and Monday when the predominant Igbo Christians and elders should be in their various communities and residences for the Easter celebration.”

Ogbonnia continued, “The mischievous Asaba flyer regrettably carries names of Igbo professors. It will be indeed most inconceivable of a genuine professor or any other person to portray ignorance that the leadership of Ohanaeze Ndigbo resides in Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, as the President General and Ambassador Okey Emuchay as Secretary.”

He informed the people of Delta State and the general public that appropriate security agencies had been alerted about the “unscrupulous marauders whose sole aim is to upset the peace and tranquility for which Asaba town is known”.

According to him, “It is unthinkable that the Commissioner of Police in Delta State will create room for another crises soon after the bloodbath at Ugheli axis of the state. Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide dissociates itself from the Easter Retreat at Asaba. We caution that anybody attending such an event is doing so at his or her own risk.”