The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has said the presidential ambition of Labour Party candidate Peter Obi has nothing to do with the Biafra struggle.
The group said the agitation is intact, stressing nothing would change its resolve toward Biafra freedom through peaceful and non-violent globally accepted practices.
IPOB was reacting to a comment credited to an Islamic cleric, Sheikh Gumi that the candidacy of Peter Obi, had slowed down the agitation for Biafra.
In a statement by its Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, the secessionist group described the comment as laughable, saying no right-thinking person should take Gumi seriously.
The statement reads in part: “The most important political process that IPOB is interested in and would overwhelmingly participate in would be an International Community Supervised Referendum on Biafrans choice to stay or exit Nigeria.
“Finding one’s way into public office, stealing public funds and using same to intimidate and buy shameless, dishourable delegates as if they are in “Slave action market” and subsequent votes naming that “those that understands politics” will be unacceptable in the Nation of Biafra. Nigeria election is a scam and despicable hence IPOB is not interested with Nigeria kind of politics. God forbid!
“We must restore the Kingdom of God on Earth where of course our friends (Aboki Biafra, Awon óre Biafra) are free to migrate to and enjoy modern-day Freedom and Fundamental human Rights in practical terms in Africa. The British Colonial Masters having studied the history of creativity and ingenuity of Biafrans decided to frustrate our civilization by forming unholy and retrogressive union with normadics.
“That’s why people like Sheikh Gumi who ought to be in the forest with cows is seen as one of the Nigerian elites. But Chukwuokike (God the Creator) brought Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and IPOB to free His children from the shackles of backwardness that Britain has put us into for many decades.
“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 recognise Nigeria as a Sovereign State deserving our allegiance and loyalty.
“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 and 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 experience which God Almighty (Chukwu Okike Abiama) 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. But 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. Fulani people should stop dissipating their energies on what is not obtainable anywhere in the world.
“In view of this, the Nigeria Government approved legitimate Terror Industry Captain, facilitator and advocate like Gumi should distance himself on issues he knows nothing about and concern himself with latest strategic formats available to bury Nigeria terror-wise.
“Biafra is something you would not understand how it will emerge because Elohim is paddling the movement through volunteered wise men and women who are intellectuals and not those speaking from both ends of their mouths.”