Charles Soludo, who was sworn in as the fifth civilian governor of Anambra state in March 2022, held a town hall meeting last weekend, to celebrate his first year in office.
Former president Olusegun Obasanjo, Peter Obi of the Labour Party, and Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, chairman of the elders’ forum of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, among other dignitaries, graced the event held in Awka, the state capital.
Controversies have since trailed Soludo’s colloquium with the claim that Iwuanyanwu insulted the Yobura people by calling them political rascals.
Kayode Ogundamisi posted on his verified Twitter handle a video of the moment Iwuanyanwu was speaking at the event, with the caption, “Star Video: ‘Yorubas are political rascals and we are going to handle them’ Chief Emmanuel Ahaejiejemba Iwuanyanwu (Born 1942)”
The post has since garnered over 249k views, 579 likes, and 277 retweets as of when it was retrieved on Thursday, March 30, 2023.
A news website, TheRoundTable, also claimed in a report titled “Yorubas Are Political Rascals And We Are Going To Handle Them, Says Igbo Leader.”
Claim: Iwuanyanwu, an Igbo elder-statesman, described Yorubas as political rascals
Verification
Findings by the CDD Election War Room show that the claim is false.
We checked the live video coverage of the colloquium aired on Channels TV to verify if Iwuanyanwu made the alleged statement.
Iwuanyanwu, while delivering an opening remark as the chairman of the occasion, talked about the role Obasanjo played in resolving the Nigerian civil war.
He further reiterated the latest resolution of the Ohanaeze Council of Elders Worldwide over the issue of attacks on Igbos in Lagos state, warning the perpetrators of such acts to desist.
“We’ve resolved that never again can we allow anybody to take the life of any innocent Igbo person. All of us are going to fight the person.
“I want to tell those in Lagos to realise that there’s no war between us (Igbos) and Yorubas. Yorubas are with us, there are just political rascals and we are going to handle them,” Iwuanyanwu said.
This shows that Iwuanyanwu’s statement was taken out of context to make the narrative that he insulted the Yorubas.
Iwuanyanwu has also released a statement to debunk the alleged comment attributed to him. Part of the statement read, “I want to make it abundantly clear that at no time did I make the statement credited to me by blackmail circulating on the social media that Yorubas are political rascals as this was fraudulently manipulated.”
Verdict:
The claim that Iwuanyanwu, Chairman of the elders’ forum of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, described Yoruba people as political rascals, is false. The CDD Election War Room can confirm that he didn’t make such a comment when he spoke at governor Soludo’s first-year anniversary in Anambra.
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