Former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has retracted his long held stand that he is an Igbo man.
He had while speaking before a crowd of supporters at the All Progressives Congress, APC, presidential campaign in Aba, Abia State in 2015, said: I am a bona fide Igbo man.
“My name is Amaechi but President Jonathan who says his name is Azikiwe cannot speak the Igbo language."
Amaechi has now said his earlier claim was all politics.
The former Rivers State governor said this in an interview on Arise Television's Prime Time.
According to him, he is an Ikwerre man from Rivers State, adding that he associated himself with the Igbo people to make Nigerians address the cries of marginalisation by the Southeast.
"I'm an Ikwerre man. If you ask an Ikwerre man who are you, he will tell you that I'm an Ikwerre man.
"So, what you can say is that is an Ikwerre man an Igbo man? There are divergent views, the majority will say no, but there is a very tiny minority which includes me.
"Why did I take that position, it's political but not to win the votes of the Igbos. I didn't like the way Igbos were being treated at a particular point in time - in protest against the Igbos I began to wear the Tiger head cloth with the red cap.
"I wore it in protest asking Nigerians to address their problems. Again, I made it public that I'm an Igbo man in protest."