Fomer Governor of Imo State, Emeka Ihedioha, on Friday apologised to Igbo people over his comments in an event in Ghana. Ihedioha in a viral video that had generated millions of comments allegedly called people who are supporting the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, saboteurs.
He was a guest on Channels TV Sunrise Daily programme which was monitored by our correspondent, Ihedioha said that his speech in Ghana was misconstrued and blown out of proportion.
Apologising to the Igbo people, Ihedioha said that the word “saboteur” he used during his speech was not referred to the supporters of the LP presidential candidate but to his kinsmen whom he said were PDP members and were sabotaging the efforts of his party to reclaim power in Imo State in 2024.
“My position was very simple, I was speaking to our people. I am an Mbaise man and the PDP has been very faithful to us. PDP has given us support, PDP gave us the opportunity to produce governor in our state and I said to them we have an opportunity and I called that they should not sabotage our efforts to reclaim power and that was it.
“That was the context. And if listen carefully and I have found out from a number of persons have made calls and either to my person, my family, friends and associates and I have not had the privilege to watch the tape but if you do you will see the context. It is being blown out of proportion but I am responsible to people who show you love, people who show you confidence, people who believe in you and you also need to respect their feelings and so to all those millions of Nigerians, particularly from South East extraction who feel hurt by my use of language, I am sorry about it.
“I do not mean to hurt anybody and they have a right to obviously express their political opinions in any way, form or shape and of course, I have my friends who belong to other political parties and we still relate and we will continue to relate.“
