A communique issued after the Imeobi meeting on Saturday, in Enugu, said the Ohanaeze Ndigbo has resolved that its next president-general will come from Rivers State.
The communique was jointly signed by Mr. Chiedozie Ogbonnia and Okey Emuchay, spokesman, and the Secretary-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo respectively.
It added that the Imeobi Ohanaeze also resolved that the composition of both Election and Screening Committees for the forthcoming Ohanaeze election will be carried out by the group’s National Executive Committee.
In attendance at the event were Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State, the presidents of Ohanaeze Ndigbo in Abia, Anambra, Delta, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Rivers States.
Others were Abia South Senator, Enyinnaya Abaribe, former APGA National Chairperson, Chekwas Okorie, former Inspector-General of Police, Mike Okiro, and a former Minister of Power, Professor Chinedu Nebo.
Governor Mbah, represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Chidi Onyia, urged the new president-general to ensure that the forthcoming Ohanaeze election was both “transparent and credible.”
Zoning principle in Ohanaeze
The position of president-general of Ohanaeze Ndigbo rotates among seven Igbo-speaking states in south-east and south-south Nigeria, Igbofacts gathered.
The South-east has five states namely, Enugu, Anambra, Ebonyi, Abia and Imo while the south-south region has two states which are Rivers and Delta States.
Each state is to produce the president-general of Ohanaeze who would serve for a single tenure of four years, according to an existing zoning arrangement of the Igbo group.
A state which does not complete its tenure as a result of the death or resignation of the incumbent president-general is permitted to nominate another to complete such tenure subject to ratification by the Imeobi Ohanaeze.
Supporters of Chukwu’s emergence argue that it is the prerogative right of Imo State to nominate a new president-general of the group to complete the remaining 27 days of Iwuanyanwu’s four-year tenure.
Ozichukwu Chukwu becomes the 12th president-general of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo.
