Ihedioha apologises for calling Peter Obi's supporters saboteurs at New Yam Festival event

FORMER Imo State governor Hon Emeka Ihedioha has apologised to Ndigbo over his recent comments at the 2022 New Yam festival ceremony in Ghana where he called all those supporting Peter Obi's presidential ambitions as saboteurs.

In a viral video that has generated millions of comments, Hon Ihedioha called people who are supporting the Labour Party presidential candidate, former Anambra State governor Peter Obi, saboteurs. Addressing the Mbaise community in Ghana, Hon Ihedioha, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), called on them to support his party's candidate, former vice president Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

However, his comments attracted a bitter, prompting the former governor to say that his speech in Ghana was misconstrued and blown out of proportion. Apologising to the Igbo people, Hon Ihedioha said that the word saboteur he used during his speech was not referring to Governor Obi's supporters but to his kinsmen whom he said were PDP members and were sabotaging the efforts of his party to reclaim power in Imo State.

Saying that he was sorry, Hon Ihedioha added that it was not in his character to be rude, arrogant, or to use uncultured words on people whom he does not share the same political beliefs with. Speaking further, Hon Ihedioha said that he was certain that PDP was going to win the 2023 presidential election.

Hon Ihedioha added:  "I went to Ghana on the invitation of my people for the New Yam festival who are predominantly PDP members. Knowing where we are coming from as a people and knowing where PDP left our people, the promises made by APC who were surging to take over power, they promised us everything.

"They promised water, they promised light, they promised free education, promised free housing, they promised prosperity, they promised stabilisation of the naira and currency. You know that all those things were myriads of deceitful, fraudulent promises that have not come to pass.

“So when you talk about the future of our country, you see people who are worried about being deceived into believing that you just wished it happened. So, the desire for me for a PDP administration that has internal mechanisms of good governance cannot be over-emphasized.

"So I spoke to our people consciously within the PDP to express the need for them not to sabotage our efforts in reclaiming power in 2023 so that Nigerians can see good governance. So give it to the PDP, one thing about us is that there could be issues you expect in any human conflagration but we have ways of resolving those issues."

On the crisis rocking PDP, Hon Ihedioha said that the presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar has the capacity to resolve it before the next year’s general elections. He said that his seven months reign as the governor of Imo state was satisfactory to the people of the state, adding that his party would sack the APC administration in the state at the next election.