The Apex Igbo Socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, has said that Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu never referred to Yorubas as political rascals, describing the report as a lie from the pit of hell.
Ohanaeze said the report was “a typical falsehood, fabricated by social media entrepreneurs, decorated with wings, expanded with venom, injected with ethnic nuances to create inter-ethnic mistrust between the age-long partners in social, cultural, religious and economic
development of Nigeria.
The group said this in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Dr Alex Ogbonnia, in Enugu on Sunday.
Ogbonnia said:
“Our attention has been drawn to the fake news making the rounds that the Chairman, Council of Elders, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Chief Emmanuel wuanyanwu, referred to the Yorubas as political rascals.
He denied that Iwuanyanwu never made such a comment while speaking in Awka, Anambra State, on Saturday during an event to mark the one year in office of Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo, the Governor of Anambra State.
Ogbonnia said Chief Iwuanyanwu only drew the attention of the audience and the general public to the fact that Ndigbo and Yoruba people were neither quarreling nor fighting, implying that the yorubas were a friendly group of people.
He said Iwuanyanwu only said, “I want to tell those in Lagos to realize that there is no war between us and the Yorubas”, adding that “those who attacked Ndigbo in Lagos recently are rascals who should be arrested”.
“This has mischievously been twisted to imply that ‘Yoruba people are political rascals and that we will fight them’ This is quel dommage from the insidious minds of those who wish to create rift between the Igbo and the Yoruba ethnics.
“At no time in history, there is often a tug of war between two major groups; mostly the good people with conscience on one hand and the devious insidious minds on the other.
“So, as much as some mischief makers will twist the speech by wuanyanwu, the truth remains that he holds the Yorubas in a very high esteem and he used the Awka event to express it,” Ogbonnia said.