Why IPOB Members Attacked Ekweremadu in Germany

The immediate past Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu was yesterday attacked in Nuremberg, Germany by some members of the proscribed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB).

Ekweremadu, the Chairman of the Senate committee on Environment gave the account of the event on his social media handle @iamekweremdu, assuring Ndigbo and his supporters across the nation that he was safe.

He said: “I attended the Second Annual Cultural Festival and Convention organised by Ndi-Igbo Germany in Nurnberg where I was billed to give a keynote address alongside the President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Nnia Nwodo, who could not make it eventually.

“I was given a resounding welcome by Ndigbo in Germany and everything went smoothly until some men, who identified themselves as IPOB members stormed the venue and began to complain about the killings in the South-east, stressing that there would be no Igbo event at the venue.

“I tried to engage them, but when they became unruly, I had to leave the venue. The organisers also invited the police and I was accompanied out of the venue.

“I am disappointed in their conduct. I am one of the persons, who have spoken up on justice for Ndigbo, the Python Dance, judicial killings in Igbo land and elsewhere both on the floor of the Senate and in my written and personal engagements with the Presidency and the media.

“I also rallied the South-east Senate Caucus to secure Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s release with Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe taking him on bail to douse tension in the South East, I nevertheless do not hold this to heart against them, for they know not what they do.

“I have received thousands of solidarity calls and messages from well meaning Ndigbo. I want to assure them that I am hail and hearty. I have also spoken with the Nigerian Ambassador to Germany, Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar”.

Reacting to the assault yesterday, Ohaneze, the Igbo apex socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze condemned the attack on Ekweremadu by members of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra in Germany.

Ohanaeze called on the German law enforcement agencies to bring the perpetrators to justice. It described the assault on Ekweremadu as a disgrace.

In a statement he issued yesterday, Nwodo said the assault on Ekweremadu by Igbos in Germany “is disappointing, grotesque and dangerous for Igbo solidarity.

“This violent, rude, impertinent, divisive and discourteous style of IPOB or IPOB-instigated miscreants is damaging to our cause. It strengthens the case of those who describe them as terrorists and weaken our case against the infringement of our fundamental human rights.”

“Ekweremadu negotiated the sureties and securities for Nnamdi Kanu’s release on bail. He does not deserve this picketing and disgrace. A disgrace to him is a disgrace to Igbo race.

Also, former Senate Leader, Senator Ali Ndume condemned the Saturday’s attack on Ekweremadu, saying the IPOB members in Nuremberg, Germany attacked one of the greatest Nigerian hero.

Ndume, Senate Committee Chairman on Army, spoke on phone with THISDAY from Saudi Arabia said, the attack was uncalled for and unwarranted.

According to him, Ekweremadu is one person who has always identified with the Igbo nation at every possible opportunity at Senate plenary since he was elected concecutively to the Senate since 2003.

His words : “the IPOB members in Nuremberg, Germany went after their hero, Nigerian hero and they indeed attacked the wrong person.

“If they take recourse to immediate past, Ekweremadu is not the person they ought to attack, and indeed they have to stop such attack on anybody for that matter.”

The Chairman of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa equally condemned the attack on the former deputy senate president.

Dabiri-Erewa in a statement on Saturday described the incident as an embarrassment to the country.

She stated that some of the culprits who perpetrated the act had been apprehended and called on the German government and law enforcement agencies to ensure they faced the consequences of their actions.

She said: “It is also shamefully pathetic that an event which was nobly put together by the Ndi-Igbo community in Germany whose members make up the majority of Nigerians living in Germany, to amongst other things provide a forum for the Diasporans and various stakeholders to network and to facilitate a better cooperation between German and Nigerian businesses, ended up in such a disgraceful manner.”

She appealed to Nigerians to be of good behaviour wherever they find themselves “because such incidents tarnish the image of the country.”

Source:This Day

Join APC before your party dies, Osinbajo tells PDP members

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has asked members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to consider joining the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) before the main opposition party dies.
Osinbajo, who spoke at a dinner to mark the 80th birthday celebration of former National Chairman of the APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, jokingly said “it was time for my friends in the PDP to cross over to the APC”.

The Vice President who told a story of an American Republican Senator who told his bewildered family on his dying bed that he wants to cross over to the Democrat said : “Let me tell a story of politician who was a long time life Republican politician in the US.
“He was lying down on a sick bed and was about to die, he said, ‘I want to change my party, I want to become a Democrat so that tomorrow it will be announced that a Democrat died not a Republican’.
“You can see that we politicians very faithful and very loyal indeed. I can only ask our friends in PDP also to ensure that they cross over before they die! It is time for them to cross over.”
He described Chief Oyegun as a loyal party man, an excellent role model and leader who has always been his own man, charting his own course, sometimes, making some real troubles.
He said: “I have always admired Chief John Odigie Oyegun for two reasons. First reason is that somehow, he has always been his own man, charting his own course, sometimes, making some real troubles.
“For example, when as a permanent secretary, he raised contempt proceedings when he refused to testify in principle.

“As a young man, I watched with bathed breadth when they were going to carry him to jail.
“But he ended up on the right side. It is not always that you find one on the right side of history.
“As a founding member of AD, a founding member of NADECO and later its secretary of those abroad, founding member of the APC and the first chairman, the one who led our party to tat historic victory to unseat the ruling party.
“The second reason for my admiration is that some how, he manages to be so deep in Nigerian politics even though he doesn’t look like a politician or sound like one.
“He always sound like a fine, well read and well spoken gentleman driven into politics by some rascals.
“But indeed, he is a consummate politician and an astute strategist.
“It is this particular attribute of being in politics without being a politician that I will like to be when I grow up. Aside from lawyers, I do not know a group of people who are more maligned than politicians.
 “People like Chief Oyegun has shown that politicians can be loyal and distinguished men and women and it makes us proud to belong to this company of credible human beings. Despite what people say, we are often more loyal than some other people.”

Source:The Nation