Following speculations doing the rounds since on Monday that the president general of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Prof George Obiozor, is dead, the pan-Igbo group has maintained a cutious, studied silence on the matter.
In the last 24 hours, there had been at least a feeble attempt to deflect the speculation albeit not officially by Ohanaeze.
The first feeble attempt was the sharp response by an official of the association who said that Prof Obiozor was alive even as he admitted that he was ill.
The second attempt, which appeared curious was by Ohanaeze’s national publicity secretary, Dr Alex Ogbonnia, who when asked about any official statement on the matter, simply replied “not yet”.
The “not yet” could mean that Obiozor had died and the association had yet to consider issuing a formal statement announcing his passing. It could also mean that the association was being cautiously optimistic, in case he is still alive but in critical health condition as earlier reported, of his likelihood of pulling through.
However, Daily Post in its latest report quoted a source at Ohanaeze to have said that, “The man is dead but it’s not in our tradition to announce such death even when we have such information. We allow the family members to make such an announcement.
“He died on Monday of heart-related disease. I’m not specific about where he died but he travelled abroad and returned to Lagos.
“I was called in the early hours of December 26th that he died in the early hours.”
Ohanaeze had on Tuesday denied the death rumours of Nigeria’s former diplomat and academic, Prof George Obiozor.
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