Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a group that had formerly backed Peter Obi of the Labour Party, has withdrawn its support, declaring that its members will never participate in any elections in the “Zoological Republic,” which is a reference to Nigeria.
The group issued this declaration in reaction to Islamic cleric Islamic Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, who said that after Peter Obi selected the Labour Party’s presidential ticket, IPOB agitation in the South East had eased down.
Gumi was deemed mistaken by IPOB, according to a statement issued by Emma Powerful, the organization’s media and publicity secretary.
The Republic of Biafra’s political agitations, in Emma Powerful’s opinion, cannot be sacrificed for Nigerian politics.
He claimed Gumi lacked knowledge of the IPOB movement and its actions and had displayed “cluelessness.”
He claimed that the Biafra agitation was still going strong and that nothing would weaken the group’s commitment to its campaign for peaceful, non-violent, and internationally recognized methods of achieving Biafra freedom.
“IPOB does not engage with any shambolic selection process they call ‘Nigeria election’ and we are not interested in their fraudulent ways of selecting the president of Nigeria because we do not believe in Nigeria anymore.
“We have said it before now that IPOB does not know Peter Obi and Peter Obi does not know IPOB.
“If Peter Obi knows IPOB, its aims and objectives, he wouldn’t have come out in the first place to contest to waste his wealth and vast knowledge, talent and wisdom endowed with experience which God Almighty gave and blessed Biafrans with, in the Zoological Republic.
“Therefore, for Peter Obi to have come out to contest for Nigeria president is an indication that he is not on the same page with IPOB and people should not equate him with IPOB agenda, they can say any other thing about him, not Biafra agitation.
“We can never slow down agitation until Biafra comes. Any Biafran who comes out and joins the election process under Nigeria has publicly proven that he or she is not in the same ideology with IPOB.”
