Former Agriculture Minister and Chairman of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Chief Audu Ogbe, has cautioned leaders in the South-East that getting the 2023 presidency cannot be through threats and intimidation, but by lobbying other parts of the country.

The ACF Chairman who gave the warning at a press conference held in Kaduna on Thursday, said the way politicians of Igbo extraction are going about the 2023 presidency is more of resorting to threats and blackmail which might not give the Presidency to the South-East

According to Ogbe, political parties should be responsible for zoning the presidency but acknowledged that the “management of political parties in Nigeria now has become hopeless,” as they have abandoned the constitutional responsibilities of holding their elected leaders accountable.”

“I want to remind Igbo leaders that democracy encourages political power- seekers to be friendly and reach out widely to stakeholders across the country in order to win their respective support,” Ogbe said.

“We want to advise that if the South-East people want to have the presidency in 2023, they should begin to lobby, go round the country, talk to people.

“But what we are seeing is that there is so much hatred and attacks especially on social media about the 2023 presidency.

“They are going about it by way of threats and intimidation and they cannot get the presidency that way.

“Nobody has come to us to say he wants to contest, but we will support whomever any party throws up because what we need most is peace.

“We are not going to endorse people who cannot do the job because if we make a bad choice, the people will suffer for it.

“But you all know that ACF is not a political party, all we want to see is peace and harmony everywhere ahead of the 2023 general elections, during and even after,” he said.

On insecurity, Ogbeh a former Minister of Agriculture, said: “This is barbarism. We are all depressed, we are concerned, we are sad.