Group defends Igbo support for Jonathan

A socio-cultural group, Igbo Youth Movement, has defended the bloc votes given to

President Goodluck Jonathan by the Igbo in the presidential election.

Majority of Igbo votes went to Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party although he eventually lost to Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) of the All Progressives Congress.

Several analysts have faulted the manner in which the Igbo voted in the March 28 presidential and National Assembly elections, with many arguing that the South-East had lost relevance in national politics as a result of the outcome of the polls.

It is also being speculated that the South-East would be sidelined in the coming dispensation by the loss of a chance to produce the Senate President, following the ruling party’s impending relegation into a minority in the National Assembly.

But the Igbo Youth Movement, in a statement in Enugu, stressed that the Igbo voted according to their conviction and have no cause for regrets.

The IYM insisted that the voting pattern exhibited by the Igbo in the presidential and National Assembly polls was in line with their belief that the country should be restructured.

The President of the IYM, Elliot Uko, who issued the statement, condemned what he described as the “spate of abuses on the Igbo nation from some quarters regarding the election.”

Uko described the abuses as annoying and eye-opening.