Kohima, March 29: The two factions of the Naga National Council (NNC) have locked horns over the issue of A.Z. Phizo’s date of birth before the celebration of his 100th birth anniversary begins on May 16.

It is being debated whether the founder of the NNC was born on May 4 or May 16, 1904.

While the Adino Phizo-led NNC insisted that it would go ahead with the function on May 16, the Panger Walling faction claimed that Phizo was born on May 4.

Visier Sanyü, who had written a pamphlet for the leader’s funeral more than a decade ago, has expressed concern over the controversy in a letter to writer Kaka. D. Iralu.

Sanyu was replying to Iralu’s letter to the scholar, regarding a clarification on Phizo’s date of birth.

Iralu, concerned over his name being dragged into the controversy, said he was not the “man behind Phizo’s birth centenary”.

“On my part, I am ready to resign any day if the Naga general public feels that I should not be a member of the organising committee,” Iralu has stated in a release today.

While the Panger Walling-led NNC stated in one of its releases that Iralu was the grandson of Phizo, Iralu clarified that he was the grandnephew.

Sanyü, in his letter to Iralu stated that after research he had mentioned Phizo’s date of birth as May 16 in the Phizo Souvenir Pictorial.

NNC vow: The Naga National Council (Panger faction) today vowed never to forgive chief minister Neiphiu Rio for sabotaging the Wokha meet and then misleading the media about his role in the sabotage, reports our Dimapur correspondent.

The NNC in a statement today said Rio was trying to blame the Lotha people for the Wokha sabotage, which was not the case.