From Magnus Eze, Enugu and Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri
Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide has summoned an emergency meeting of its National Executive Committee (NEC) over the sudden demise of the President General, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu.
The Igbo leader died at 82 in Abuja, the nation’s capital on Thursday, July 25, after a brief illness.
A letter of invitation dated July 26, 2024 and signed by the Secretary General of the apex Igbo body, Okey Emuchay, indicated that the meeting will hold at the GRA Enugu National Secretariat.
It urged all the NEC members to endeavour to attend the all important meeting.
Daily Sun reliably gathered that Ohanaeze Ndigbo will among other things open a condolence register at the National Secretariat during the occasion.
The body will thereafter, direct its organs across the states and in Diaspora to follow suit.
It was gathered that similar honour might be accorded Senator Ifeanyi Ubah, another prominent Igbo son who died at the weekend.
The Nnewi, Anambra State-born politician and oil magnet, died in London at 52.
Meanwhile, Iwuanyawu’s former deputy at the Owerri Peoples Assembly, Air Commodore Luke Ochulor (retd) has expressed doubt over a suitable replacement.
While regretting the incident of succession of the Ohanaeze PG’s office, recalling Iwuanyawu’s predecessor, the late George Obiozor, Ochulor said Iwuanyawu’s death would really put to bear some of his unrivaled qualities that could not be matched in the zone while searching for his successor.
Ochulor, former military administrator of Delta State, said: “We have been contemplating since yesterday who can best fit into Iwuanyawu’s shoes, but we have not arrived at a single person. “His death will surely exhume a lot of the qualities he had. Nobody can have the courage he had in speaking for the Igbo .
“I describe him as the Eagle perching on an Iroko tree. If an Eagle perches on such a tree, everybody will look up, and if it flies away, everybody will equally know that there is trouble .
“The kind of trouble he takes, the boldness and how he defends and speaks for the Igbo, I don’t think there’s another person that has such courage. If there is, let the person come forward let’s meet him,” Ochulor challenged.