Igbo socio-cultural organization, Ohanaeze Ndigbo has faulted the decision of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to zone the office of the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives to the South-Eastern region of the country.
As the APC and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration deal with the decision of who becomes what in the National Assembly, Ohanaeze described the ruling party’s leadership decision to zone the deputy speakership to Igbo as “highly unreflective, disgusting and provocative to the Igbo.”
There are reports that APC prefers Senator Godswill Akpabio to emerge as the Senate President while Barau Jibril should be his deputy, and Tajudeen Abbas and Benjamin Kalu have been anointed to become the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives respectively.
In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Dr Alex Ogbonnia, Friday, the group rejected the arrangement of reserving the second highest office of the House to the South-East.
Ohanaeze said, “The Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide has watched with grave concern the zoning of principal officers of the Senate and the House of Representatives of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“We have also observed that the All Peoples Congress (APC) zoned the position of the Deputy Speaker to the South East of Nigeria.
“The Ohanaeze Ndigbo states that allocating the position of the Deputy Speaker to the South East is highly unreflective, disgusting and provocative to the Igbo.”
It, then, directed all the Nigerian federal lawmakers of Igbo extraction to vote for their preferred candidates into the principal offices of the National Assembly as they deem fit.
“To this end, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide led by Chief Engr. Dr Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, CFR (Ahaejiagamba) directs all the Igbo Lawmakers in the 10th National Assembly to vote according to their discretions irrespective of state, religion or ethnicity,” Ohanaeze added.