Thisendorsement came with heavy knocks on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and its candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

ChiefChekwas Okorie addressed Igboezue at a press briefing in Enugu which was titled "Igbo Nation and 2019 Presidential Election" he said that PDP and Atiku had heavy moral burden on their shoulders.

Accordingto them, the interest of Ndigbo would no longer be left in the hands of a handful of individuals.

Duringthe 16 years of leadership by the PDP, Igboezue said, “the appointment of Igbo men and women into political offices were deceitful. It is even more scandalous that we had those appointments in addition to five Senate Presidents and still in 16 years there is nothing of benefit to any person in the South east geopolitical zone to point at except the fact that the families of the appointees transformed their lifestyles to some vulgar opulence which generally assaulted the sensibilities of their fellow Igbo people.”

“We are aware that the PDP has an unwritten policy that no Igbo person will ever be the President of Nigeria until after the passage of 150 years after the Nigeria-Biafra war.”, he added.

The group said, “we are not impressed by Atiku's rhetorics on restructuring when PDP, his political party, does not believe in it and has made no commitment to the Nigerian people on the vexed issue of restructuring.”

They defined Atiku’s restructuring campaign to be political 419 and that support for Buhari is the easiest way to Igbo presidency in 2023, they noted.

Igboezue proclaimed that “four more years of President Buhari’s government will by far be better and more bearable than the anticipated eight years of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, which will bring back to our people the sad memories of 16 years of PDP emasculation of Ndigbo.

“It is obvious that the PDP has not made any form of commitment to the restructuring of Nigeria as they proclaimed", he said. 

It was gathered that Okorie led United Progressives Party (UPP) few days ago to endorse Buhari for the 2019 election.