BY MAYOWA SAMUEL
Apex Igbo socio-cultural group, has expressed the group’s readiness to accept the naming of the second Niger Bridge and other projects after President Muhammadu Buhari in the region if he supports the zoning of the presidency to the South East come 2023.
Disclosing this to The Point, the Publicity Secretary of the group, Alex Ogbonnia, assured that he will also convince the Indigenous People of Biara to agree with the naming if he allows an Igbo president to succeed him after his tenure.
IPOB’s Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, had in a statement last week, rejected the Federal Government’s alleged plan to name the bridge after the president when completed, adding that “The South East has more credible names and more important persons, like the late Chinua Achebe, Chu Okongwu, Cyprian Ekwensi, Alex Ekwueme, Michael Okpara, Akanu Ibiam, Mbonu Ojike and Kenneth Dike, among others, who the Federal Government can name the second Niger Bridge after.”
He also described as false, the allegation by the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola that IPOB disturbed the construction of the bridge, challenging the minister to substantiate his claims with evidences of when and how IPOB disrupted or interfered with the construction of the bridge whether directly or indirectly.
Ogbonnia, in his reaction said, “Yes, we are in support, if he gives Igbo the presidency. Just the way Obasanjo gave the presidency to Yar’Adua, if Buhari gives presidency to the South East, we will name the second Niger bridge after him and even more after him, not just Niger bridge.
“I will convince IPOB not to worry, if Buhari does that. I have a duty, it is my duty to convince IPOB to accommodate that. Nigerians know and will always remember their heroes’ past, whether Buhari does it or not.
What is important to us about the second Niger Bridge is if he gives the presidency to the South East, we’ll name, not only Niger Bridge, but many other things after him.
Ibrahim Gambari, the Chief of Staff to President Buhari, on March 8, announced that the 1.6 km second Niger Bridge which was awarded in 1979 by the Shehu Shagari regime, will be completed by October 2022.
