Anambra polls: MASSOB tackles IPOB, urges Biafrans to procure voters cards
Anambra polls: MASSOB tackles IPOB, urges Biafrans to procure voters cards. Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, has differed with the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, over their proposed election boycott and ordered all Biafrans of voting age to make haste and procure voters cards. This came as a gubernatorial aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Prince John Okechukwu Emeka, weekend, said no group has the power to stop the Anambra State governorship election slated for November 18. This is even as Inter-Party Advisory Committee, IPAC, has flayed IPOB and its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, on their stand to boycott Anambra election if a date is not set for a referendum for the process of Biafra.
The organisation maintained that Nigeria is still one sovereign nation and as such, the call is tantamount to a joke taken too far. MASSOB tackles IPOB over Anambra election According to MASSOB, boycotting voters registration would be counter productive to the re actualisation of Biafra republic, adding that voters card is a critical document for voting in a referendum that the pro-Biafra groups are agitating for.
MASSOB, therefore, ordered all Biafrans eligible to vote, to immediately go for voters registration at the nearest Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, office. National Secretary of MASSOB, Comrade Ugwuoke Ibem Ugwuoke, in a statement, yesterday, said the group, after its national meeting presided over by its leader, Comrade Uchenna Madu, resolved the following engagements for the people of Biafra: “That MASSOB orders all Biafrans that are constitutionally eligible to vote to immediately go for voters registration cards at the nearest INEC offices; that possession of the Nigeria voters cards is not for Nigeria election but for Biafra referendum.
“Boycotting voters registration and possessing the card is a self-inflicted decision for any referendum on self determination for sovereignty of a state. “That for a proposed statehood of Biafra to be ordered and declared by United Nations, the voting population of Biafrans through the registration and possession of the voters card must be captured in the national demography of the existing political territory (Nigeria) from which the voting population of the coming statehood (Biafra) is seeking for a separation.” Slates Sept 13 for anniversary Ugwuoke also disclosed that MASSOB has declared September 13, 2017 as anniversary day for MASSOB members and friends of Biafra.
He said MASSOB will commemorate the 18th anniversary of formation of MASSOB, adding that MASSOB is a movement that is propelled by the will and decisions of members. No group can stop Anambra election— Aspirant A gubernatorial aspirant on the platform of the PDP, Prince John Okechukwu Emeka, weekend, said no group had the power to stop the Anambra State governorship election slated for November 18. Prince Emeka stated this shortly after picking his Expression of Interest form at the party’s national secretariat, Wadata Plaza, Abuja. In an interactive session with newsmen, Emeka, a one-time Minister of State for Transportation, said the threat by IPOB that the election will not hold if Biafra is not granted an independent status, is not the solution to the people’s challenges.
“I don’t see how a group can stop an election in the Federal Republic of Nigeria. There are issues but we are addressing those issues. We have to restore our core values by bringing hope to the hopeless,” he said. On the chances of PDP at the polls, Emeka said the decision to zone the governorship to Anambra North will enable the party to fight formidably in the election.
IPAC flays IPOB, Kanu over call for boycott Chairman of IPAC, Enugu State Chapter, Rev. John Nwobodo, who spoke in an interview with newsmen in Enugu, weekend, said IPOB has no right to order people not to participate in an electoral process, pointing out that self-rule does not just come overnight. Nwobodo, who is also the Enugu State chairman of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, maintained that since the areas agitating for Biafra independence are still part of Nigeria, IPOB miscalculated by giving such order to boycott elections.
“Telling people to boycott the Anambra polls, I think is a joke taken too far by members of IPOB because we are still part of Nigeria and should participate in the electoral process,” the IPAC boss said. All we want is for Nigeria to be divided —BIM Meantime, the Biafra Independence Movement, BIM, weekend, stated that efforts put in place by the Buhari-led Federal Government to quell agitations across the country was too late as BIM had decided that Nigeria must divide to pave way for the actualization of the sovereign state of Biafra. Addressing newsmen during the group’s meeting in Abakaliki, a leader of BIM, Mr. Nwifuru John, assured that the non-violent struggle for Biafra would be achieved against all odds, adding that all conditions had been met for the emergence of Biafra as a country in Nigeria.
He said: “It is quite impossible for anyone to say he will stop a Nigerian election. We cannot stop Nigeria from doing their normal election. Nigeria will be while Biafra will be. Anybody who wants to go and vote is free to do that. “I am advising my people to go and obtain their voters’ card because we are still in Nigeria. Our children go to school in Nigeria; we go to Nigeria banks and until Biafra is actualized, we are not against their election.” “We want the world to know that we cannot work with IPOB. We can never identify with them.
They are IPOB and we are MASSOB/BIM. We cannot have two masters at a time. We have Uwazurike as our leader. He is the man Ojukwu handed over the property of Biafra to. “It is late for Nigeria government. We have nothing to dialogue with them. We are tired of them; even they are tired of killing us. We are many fighting for Biafra including Niger Delta. They came to Owerri when we marked Ojukwu memorial service. Even Asari Dokunbo came. We sat together with our leader, if they go back and start talking about Niger Delta country; it is good; all we want is for Nigeria to be divided. Let us break Nigeria and let them answer Nigeria and we will answer Biafra. “We have achieved many things. Biafra has international passport. You can travel with it to anywhere. You can enter any country with Biafra identity card. We are ready to stand as a country.”