IGBO Youths For Equity, a coalition of Igbo youth groups, has condemned Tuesday’s arrest of former Imo State governor, Rochas Okorocha by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
Vanguard newspaper reports that the group which described the action as a taunt to the Igbo nation accused the anti-graft agency of allowing itself to be used as a tool for a political witch-hunt.
In a statement signed by the group’s spokesman, Captain Izundu Marcel, expressed concern over “attempts by some highly placed politicians from outside Igboland to frustrate the Igbo presidency agenda.”
They warned that Igbo youths will not sit on the fence, while some interests continue to “single out our key leaders for humiliation”.
According to the statement,
“We are concerned that over the last two years, there seems to have been deliberate attempts by a group of political hacks from outside Igboland to humiliate and demoralize key leaders from Igboland whom they consider as threats to their ambition to continue denying the Igbos their right to produce the next President of Nigeria in 2023”.
Linking Okorocha’s current ordeal to political vendetta, the group pointed out that “Senator Okorocha remains one of the most formidable politicians from the Southeast at the moment and that he might have been singled out for humiliation and attacks because of alleged 2023 conspiracies.
“We have noted with dismay, deliberate efforts to neutralize some of Igbo’s biggest shots before the 2023 general elections. Last time, it was former governor Orji Uzor Kali who was unjustly sent to prison by the same EFCC before the Supreme Court came to his rescue, today, it Owelle Rochas Okorocha. We know that other Igbo leaders have been placed on a hit list for political elimination and we warn that Igbo youths cannot continue to watch idly while our leaders are used as scapegoats for the endemic corruption that has eaten into the fabrics of our public governance, while the main culprits are allowed to continue walking free because they are not Igbos. This affront on Igbos must stop”.
Meantime, the former governor is being grilled by the EFCC at their corporate headquarters in Abuja. The spokesman of the EFCC, Wilson Uwajeren confirms that the Imo West Senator is in their custody for routine interviews relating to ongoing investigations”.