

A former Secretary-general of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Uche Okwukwu, has insisted that the Iwerre people of Rivers State are Igbo.
Chief Okwukwu, an Ikwerre man himself said this following the controversy over whether or not the Ikwerre people in Rivers State belong to the Igbo tribe.
There has been altercation between the President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu who insists that the Ikwerre people are Igbo and the President of Iwhnurohna Progressive Organisation, Dr Okachikwu Dibia who says such claim is a lie from the pit of hell.
Okwukwu, in an interview with Sunday PUNCH, said as an Ikwerre man he knew that there is the Ogbako Ikwerre and the Ikwerre Development Organisation, IDO.
He denied the existence of Iwhnurohna Progressive Organisation (IPO) which Dr Okachikwu Dibia is leading.
According to him, “The young man (Dibia) wanted to score a point by issuing a statement to challenge Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu. I wish him good luck. That is what I will say in that regard.”
When reminded that Dibia is the President of Iwhnurohna Progressive Organisation, Okwukwu retorted: “You are a journalist; have you heard about that name before? He needs to be asked some questions. First and foremost, his name is Dibia; that is what he said, and he wrote a book published in 2011, which I have. In that book, he said there was pressure on him to change his surname, but (he said) he did not change it because he allowed it to remain as an Igbo relic. But the truth is that he is an Igbo man; his DNA and his blood are Igbo. I have said time without number that the Ikwerre are Igbo, and they have at different fora from the Henry Willink’s Commission asserted that they are Igbo.
“Ikwerre land is Igbo land. The man (Dibia) wanted to become popular by issuing a statement challenging Iwuanyanwu. For example, if Ango Abdullahi says something, and somebody wants to reply to him from Igbo land or Yoruba land, it should be a known name. So, who is this person, and what organisation does he represent?”
