TheCable

Ralph Uwazuruike, leader of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), has told the Igbo to ignore the things Nnamdi Kanu, leader of Independent People of Biafra (IPOB) said on Sunday.

Uwazuruike, who spoke in Owerri, Imo state on Monday, said Kanu’s directive to the Igbo to boycott the 2019 elections except there is a referendum, is for his selfish interest.

Kanu resurfaced in Jerusalem, Israel after 13 months’ absence, saying he would come back to Nigeria to oversee the emergence of Biafra.

“I decree that there is no longer South East or South South Nigeria, it shall be known as Biafra, without referendum nothing will happen in Nigeria. IPOB will not participate in any election and that position will never change,” Kanu had said.

But Uwazuruike said Kanu reappeared because of the 2019 elections “so as to deceive the people and mop up money for himself.

He told the Igbo that Kanu was only deceiving them, adding that it is to their detriment if they do not vote.

“Last time, he carried a campaign that there wouldn’t be election in Anambra state and what eventually happened in the end?” Uwazuruike asked.

“Today, he has started again. He is back again after several months, because election is just by the corner, so as to deceive the people and mop up money for himself as the IPOB leader and in the name of fighting for the realisation of Biafra independence.

“That he ran away after a while and reappeared during the electioneering period is deceitful.

“The issue of no election is a constitutional matter. Kanu does not have the powers to say that election can never take place in the south-east.

“The truth is that in the south-east, we have only five states and what a presidential candidate, for example, only needs to win his or her election is two-thirds majority vote.

“If the five states out of the 36 states, including the FCT, do not vote and 31 states vote, two-thirds majority would still be gotten. The president then has the powers to appoint anybody to be in charge of the other five states who do not vote. This is, therefore, politically detrimental to Ndigbo.

“These are things some Igbo people do not know. Kanu has started his campaign to cause more confusion for our people, which I call campaign of calumny and deceit. He is being used to destabilise Ndigbo towards gaining the independence of Biafra.”