TheCable

The Labour Party (LP) says its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has no link to the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

Yunusa Tanko, spokesperson of the party’s campaign council, said this on Wednesday in an interview with The Punch.

The development comes after Concerned Citizens Network (CCN), a civil society group, alleged that Obi has links to IPOB.

The group had reportedly written petitions to the US and UK embassies, claiming that Obi entered into an agreement with IPOB as part of efforts to win the 2023 presidential election.

Reacting to the development, Tanko described the claim as “a total lie”.

“He treats issues holistically as a nationalist and as someone who wants to come into power to treat issues accordingly,” the LP campaign spokesperson said.

“The records are there from what he did as Anambra governor for eight years. When the IPOB issue started in Anambra, Obi treated it as every other crime perpetrated in his state, and that was why throughout his tenure, there was no single robbery in Anambra. That is a pointer.

“However, he has listening ears to listen to anyone who has any agitation against the country and against the state in order to find solution to it. That is how leaders behave, and that is what epitomises Obi.

“But if a group of people believes in the candidature of Obi, that should not be termed as IPOB supporting him. That is a total lie; it’s a case of calling a dog a bad name in order to hang it.

“They’re only trying to disassociate us and demarket us amongst our people in the south-east. But we’re solid and determined to go all the way to win this election.”

Meanwhile, the development comes weeks after Obi had said he could not condemn the Eastern Security Network (ESN), an IPOB outfit.

“I can’t condemn ESN because I’m not sure who is doing what. You can only condemn people when there is a process in which they have said this person has done something,” he had said.

The ESN has been accused of carrying out attacks in the south-east, but the group has maintained that its members are not involved in such acts.