IPoB Says It has no Business with Nigerian Elections and Campaign

The Indigenous People of Biafra IPOB has claimed that it has no business with the Nigerian elections and that the federal government is using the South East election violence as leverage on IPoB.

The pro-Biafra group added that it has unambiguously stated that a component of its mode of operation in its agitation for freedom does not have and will not be violent agitation for Biafra and that the Nigerian government is sponsoring insecurity in the South East to disrupt the 2023 elections because their candidate will lose the election.

In a statement headed “IPoB has no business with Nigerian elections and their campaign,” the Media and Publicity Secretary of IPoB, Emma Powerful, claimed that IPoB’s lack of interest in the Nigerian elections explains its persistent call for a referendum.

IPoB’s statement read, “We, the global movement and family of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, led and commanded by Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, is very much aware that the Nigerian government is, directly and indirectly, sponsoring election violence in Biafra land, intending to internationally blackmail the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, as an anti-democratic group.

“The IPOB leadership has for the umpteenth time stated unequivocally that part of our modus operandi in our agitation for freedom has never been, is not, and will not be violent agitation.

“This explains our consistent demand for the UN to organise a referendum in the Biafran territory for the Biafran people to determine their destiny. To this effect, IPOB is neither contemplating nor will it encourage or sponsor anyone or group to disrupt Nigeria’s shambolic selection process called an election.

“IPOB has constantly made it public that we have no interest in and cannot legitimise the aberration they call an election in Nigeria. We are a focused, determined, and disciplined freedom-fighting movement, not political thugs.

“IPOB is devoted to the cause of liberating our people from subjugation and modern-day slavery and neo-colonialism and will not allow ourselves to be distracted from this very objective.

“The world must hold to account the Nigerian government and the criminals it is covertly recruiting and positioning in the South East to create an environment of violence and after causing the violence, will turn around to blame IPoB.”