With high expectation of togetherness for once in order to achieve an Igbo person as President of Nigeria, betrayal seems to be part and parcel of Ndiigbo and Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) leader, Chief Ralph Uwazurike have taken lead by endorsing the Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, for the 2023 presidential election.

Chief Ralph Uwazurike, leader of the Biafra Independence Movement, had allegedly disowned the South East Presidency project during a rally in Owerri, the Imo State capital, to draw support for Bello’s presidential aspiration.

In separate statements, MASSOB and Ohanaeze, described Uwazurike’s action as unfortunate and a smacked betrayal as Ndigbo continued to push for a Nigerian President of ‘Igbo extraction’.

Ohanaeze in a statement issued by the President-General, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council, Mazi Okwu Nnabuike, said Uwazurike’s action was not a surprise as he had in the past jettisoned the Biafra project.

Okwu said the former MASSOB leader is known to be a man “ready to trade off himself for peanuts at every slightest opportunity.”

While he described Uwazurike as “a persona non-grata, a serial betrayer and a man who had completely lost a sense of history,” disclosed that “there were reports flying about that he did this volte-face after collecting N20 million”.

“We find it strange that he could sell his conscience just for a paltry N20m, to such an extent that a supposed pro-Biafra leader now talks so much about one Nigeria.

“However, we pity those who find anything meaningful in Uwazurike, a man who was dethroned as MASSOB leader because of the same reason. We know how he traded off the struggle in the past and was rewarded for betraying the same course he was pursuing,” the statement read.

Ohanaeze, however, cautioned Uwazurike and his likes to retrace their steps from a “destructive journey as the day of reckoning will surely come”, while maintaining that a million Uwazurike cannot stop the 2023 Igbo Presidency project.

Also, the Coalition of South East Youth Leaders, COSEYL, a youth group in the South East geopolitical zone, has rejected move by the Biafran Independent Movement (BIM) to support the presidential ambition of Yahaya Bello.

A statement issued on Monday by the President-General of the coalition, Goodluck Ibem alleged that the founder of BIM, Chief Ralph Uwazuruike had earlier disclosed that the group would support Bello to become Nigerian President in 2023.

The coalition lamented why Uwazuruike who is agitating for the actualization of Biafra would endorse an aspirant from another geo-political zone.

COSEYL insisted that the South East must produce the successor of President Muhammadu Buhari to allow for equity and fairness, stressing that the region had suffered marginalization enough.

“2023 is the turn of the people of South East geo-political zone to produce the next president of Nigeria and it is not negotiable”, the statement added.

COSEYL advised Uwazuruike to “continue with his Biafran movement struggle and leave the business and politics of the Nigerian state alone. Uwazuruike should know that he cannot serve two Masters at the same time.

“There is no correlation between his group, the Nigerian state and the institution of the youths. He lacks the authority to speak on behalf of the youths and so what he said to Governor Yahaya Bello is purely his personal opinion on the presidency”.

Meanwhile, MASSOB, led by Uchenna Madu, has exonerated the group from what it described as the show of shame and reckless insensitivity of Uwazuruike and his hired Igbo youths that paraded themselves as MASSOB members in Owerri conducting a political rally for the support of Bello’s presidential ambition.

The pro-Biafra group in a statement signed by its National Director of Information, Comrade Edeson Samuel, said their members were not in the rally.

The group stated, “MASSOB has never engaged or campaigned or rallied for any politician vying for political occupation in Nigeria. Our primary duty of existence is for Biafra’s actualisation and restoration through non-violence. We can never be agitating for Biafran autonomy and at the same time romancing with the major enemies of the people of Biafra.

“MASSOB warned Ralph Uwazuruike, the leader of Biafra Independent Movement to stop parading himself as MASSOB leader, and also to stop using MASSOB for merchandise.”

Edeson explained that Uwazuruike was expelled from MASSOB in November 2015 because of corruption and betrayal of trust/ confidence.

“Ralph Uwazuruike campaigning for the governor of Kogi state against his Igbo brother is nothing but to fulfil the agreement he signed with the Hausa Fulani cabals in 2013 and also to pay for the money he received from the governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Yahaya Bello,” the statement partly read.