Group Rebukes Peter Obi For Fomenting Trouble In South East
By Chukwuma Anieke, Enugu
A pan-Igbo socio-cultural pressure group known as the South East Family Union (SEFU) has taken umbrage with the former governor of Anambra State, Mr Peter Obi, warning him to save Ndigbo the embarrassment he has brought them with his recent attack on his successor, governor Willie Obiano whom he widely blamed for the choice of International Breweries Plc to locate its new brewery in Ogun State.
Addressing journalists in Enugu at the weekend, the leaders of the group; Arc Donatus Chime (Enugu), Dr Dubem Okafor (Anambra), Chief Emma Nwaiboko (Ebonyi), Bar Ugoo Ugboaja (Imo) and Dr Onuoha Kalu (Abia) expressed surprise that the opening of a plant in Ogun State had become a source of bitter calumny against Obiano and accused him of unleashing his Media Aide, Valentine Obienyem and his private human rights group, Intersociety for Civil Liberties to rub mud on governor Obiano.
“We are surprised that Mr Obi and his handlers have failed to see the dangers of inciting hatred in the populace in a manner that might invite disaffection from the Yoruba in whose land the new plant is located” the Group observed and further warned that “there is a clear and present danger of sowing mistrust and bad-blood between Ndigbo and the Yoruba with the extreme reactions from Mr Peter Obi and his team and we strongly condemn it.”
The South East Family Union expressed worries that “former governor Obi appears to be losing his once acclaimed sharpness of mind in recent times as he has continued to waddle through one controversy after another and sound sometimes like someone stricken with the Messiah Complex; elevating himself as the national beacon for integrity and moral rectitude.”
The group reasoned that Obi’s worrisome public posturing may be a part of his positioning strategy for the 2019 general elections but expressed grave concerns that it has become a growing threat to peace and harmony in the South East of Nigeria.
According to them: “We therefore want to use the opportunity of this briefing to appeal to our brother the former governor Obi to save Ndigbo this embarrassment. The South East Family Union can no longer stand aside and watch our political leaders rub mud on each other in the open in pursuit of narrow, egotistic interests. We are disappointed that Peter Obi is directly linked to the people fomenting this particular trouble and we urge him to desist from the ignoble path he has chosen for himself. We are tired of watching this feast of absurdity. Ndigbo should not be made the staple for beer parlour jest and the butt of jokes of other Nigerians because of the inordinate ambition of one man.”
They however appealed to the governor of Anambra State, Chief Willie Obiano not to allow himself to be distracted by the on-going campaign of calumny against him because Ndi Anambra and Ndigbo are aware that the decision of International Breweries to upgrade its presence in Ogun State was purely a business one and had nothing to do with his inaction or lack of competence.
