President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, has said the Pan-Igbo group has no intention to apologise for the 1966 coup as it was a strictly military affair.
Iwuanyanwu made the assertion while addressing newsmen at the weekend in Owerri, the Imo state capital.
The leader of the Igbo apex group denied claims made by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) that Ohanaeze Ndigbo was planning a trip to Sokoto State to apologise to the North over the 1966 military coup.
We cant go to beg anybody. Igbos were killed in that coup. As far as Ohanaeze Ndigbo is concerned, Igbos did not have any affair with the 1966 coup. It was purely a military affair.
Its not true, its fake news. The man that even carried the fake news has apologised. What happened was that we had a retreat at Enugu. Nobody talked about it. The only thing we did was to appoint a peace and reconciliatory committee because we want peace for our people in Lagos and everywhere else.
First of all, Igbo didnt carry out any coup. People who were killed were not killed by Ndigbo; they were killed by soldiers. Igbos didnt kill anybody. The coup was carried out by soldiers. It was purely a military affair; nothing to do with the Igbo. We have no reason to apologise to anybody.
The Igbos may be involved, but they were wearing military uniforms. Igbos didnt kill anybody, and we are not begging anybody. I have never accepted responsibility for that coup. Nobody told Nzeogu to do coup, just like nobody told the others that did coup in Nigeria, Iwuanyanwu said.
According to him, part of the mandate of the peace and conflict-resolution committee set up by the body is to look into how to compensate Igbos whose shops were destroyed, or razed by fire in markets, and had nothing to do with the alleged apology to the North.
Further, he disclosed that Ohanaeze Ndigbo will publish a book titled Our story to tell the story from 1949 about Ndigbo to correct the misrepresentation from different authors and quarters.
Iwuanyanwu maintained that he had championed the cause of Ndigbo worldwide, even at personal costs including the release of Nnamdi Kanu.
