Chief Chekwas Okorie, founder and pioneer national chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), has charged the Southeast governors not to allow the region to become a war theatre, ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Okorie, who is also the Chairman, Igbo Agenda Dialogue (IAD), in a statement on Tuesday, expressed displeasure over the desperate struggle for political power through conquest instead of the ballot box according to the tenets of democracy and the laws of Nigeria in the build-up to the 2027 polls.
He specifically called on Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State and the Chairman of the Southeast Governors Forum, to convene an emergency and extraordinary meeting of the Southeast Governors as a matter of utmost urgency to nip the rapidly deteriorating security situation in Igboland in the bud.
He recalled that on the 12th of March 2026, he released an open letter to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, which l captioned, “Halt the Brewing Anarchy in Nigeria”. According to him, he drew the attention of the President to events in Nigeria, especially by state and non-state actors, that could cause breakdown of law and order.
He regretted that his patriotic intervention didn’t seem to make any impression on the president.
Okorie further recalled that not long ago, an Islamic cleric called Sheik Sani Yahaya Jingir, in a most arrogant and inciting outburst in a public event in Kano, declared that all Nigerians who didn’t want the Muslim/Muslim presidential ticket of President Tinubu and his vice president should leave the country, claiming that Muslims owned Nigeria.
He added that the hate speech wasn’t only outrageous but unprovoked as the president and vice president were already in the last lap of their four-year tenure without any protest from any part of the country as a result of their faith.
Okorie added, “Neither the federal government nor any of its security agencies publicly condemned Sheik Jingir’s obviously subversive open declaration.
Okorie noted that the inability of the federal government nor its security agencies to publicly condemn Sheik Jingir’s encouraged more actors in the political space to become emboldened to go haywire. Stating that the government seems highly selective in its interventions.
The Igbo leader expressed concern that the ugly trend is beginning to envelope the Southeast. “It’s no longer safe for members of the opposition parties to hold public gatherings or rallies anywhere in the geopolitical zone without being attacked by heavily armed thugs.
“These attacks last for hours, resulting in severe injuries and loss of lives. In most of these incidents, the security agencies appear helpless. No arrests are ever recorded, at least to be able to trace their sponsors.
“Most Southeast governments have imposed outrageous fees for campaign billboards running into hundreds of millions of naira for a single billboard. This is the reason billboards are hardly visible across the Southeast.”
“Members of the opposition parties have also responded by pulling down the billboards of the ruling parties wherever they appeared. This is a recipe for anarchy.
“Our present Southeast governors will be held accountable if Igboland becomes another war zone. Fifty-six years after the end of the fratricidal war in the former Eastern Region, the scars and destruction of that war are still festering and unaddressed.
While warning that votes from the Southeast cannot be gotten by force, he said, “Igbo votes for the 2027 elections can never be obtained by conquest. Ndigbo must remain vigilant and defend their franchise as we’re known to do from creation.”
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