Ahead of the 2023 general elections, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has said it won’t support a Nigerian President of Igbo extraction.
IPOB, in a statement by its Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, alleged that all the people being prepared for the position are stooges that will be used against the interest of Ndigbo, Biafrans and the group.
Powerful added that the people at the forefront of the agitation were people who openly worked against the late Dr Alex Ekwueme at the Jos Peoples Democratic Party convention for the candidature of the President of Nigeria under the PDP in 1999.
He said what such people did to the late Ekwueme was similarly done by their likes to Peter Obi, in 2019 when he contested with Alhaji Abubakar Atiku as his running mate, alleging that they conspired and did not support or campaign for Obi despite being in the same political party, PDP, with him.
The statement read, “We cannot support any person that will kill us; that will mean the end of Biafra emancipation as we know. It is still fresh in our minds what transpired at Jos PDP convention when the the late Dr Alex Ekwueme contested for the candidature of the President of Nigeria under the PDP in 1999.
“Then the likes of Jim Nwobodo, Orji Uzo Kalu and virtually every other Igbo delegate at that convention voted against him. These Igbo men sabotaged Igbo presidency then, what has changed since 1999 that will make them come out now to shamefully clamour for the same Igbo presidency they publicly rejected in 1999?
“Similarly, when Mr Peter Obi in 2019 was contesting as running mate to Alhaji Abubakar Atiku, Governor Dave Umahi and his co-travellers in conspiratory business did not support or campaign for him despite being in the same political party – PDP.
“We are surprised that these people shouting President of Igbo extraction today but sabotaged their own people yesterday think we have forgotten; they also think others will support them when it is their turn.
“Besides, if these myopic and self-centred fellows think producing the President of Nigeria will solve the problem of Ndigbo: when Goodluck Jonathan, an Ijaw man from South-South was Nigeria’s President for six years, what did he do for the East in general and Ijaw people in particular?
“The same northern oligarchy that did not allow him to operate freely will still not allow any stooge they may eventually appoint from Igboland to succeed. So, it makes no sense clamouring for what won’t proffer any solution to our problems.
“The few major roads built in South-East and South-South were done, not by an Igbo man, yet none of these traitors masquerading as Igbo leaders today has been able to compel their slave masters to rehabilitate them. Most of these self-acclaimed Igbo and Old Eastern region leaders are caliphate bred traitors and we cannot trust them.”
