Ohaneze defends Ekweremadu, says ‘Igbo sons are being singled out’

Ohaneze Ndigbo, the pan-Igbo socio-cultural group, has asked the federal government to stop carrying out “unwarranted inquisition” into the life of Ike Ekweremadu, deputy senate president.

Speaking in Enugu on Thursday, Nnia Nwodo, president of the group, said Ohaneze Ndigbo would resist any attempt to discredit Ekweremadu.

He said the allegation that Ekweremadu, the highest ranking Igbo politician in the country, embezzled public funds without any prima facie case was inappropriate.

He said as a revered Igbo son, Ekweremadu had attracted a lot of development to his region without any previous accusation of embezzlement.

“Sen. Ekweremadu is a revered Igbo son whose public image is very high and who has attracted a lot of development to his area; he has never occupied any public office where he was accused of embezzlement,” he said.

“The idea of asking the senator to defend himself instead of his accusers showing how he fraudulently enriched himself, amounts to turning the law upside down.”

Nwodo queried the system of investigation where one was tried for “simply belonging to a political party and is exonerated of an offence he committed for belonging to a political party or being in government’’.

He said a former governor of Enugu state whose property was under investigation was now dining with the president after dumping his former party for the ruling party.

Nwodo warned that the apex Igbo group would no longer fold its arms while Igbo sons are being “systematically singled out for persecution in a country they had contributed so much to build”.

The federal government is about to charge Ekweremadu before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) for alleged false asset declaration.

It has also commenced the process of confiscating some of the lawmaker’s property abroad.