The Indigenous People of Biafra on Monday described the forthcoming general elections as a jamboree, saying it has not interest in the elections.
In a statement on Monday by its spokesman, Emma Powerful, the proscribed separatist group said all it wanted was a date for referendum to exit Nigeria.
It, however, dissociated itself from incessant attacks on facilities of the Independent National Electoral Commission in some parts of the South-East, especially within the Ihiala Local Government Area of Anambra State and Orsuihiteukwa in the Orsu Local Government Area of Imo State.
The IPOB spokesman also disowned a rumoured fresh sit-at-home order in the South-East.
Powerful said, “IPOB condemns the recent attacks on INEC offices and staff in Ihiala LGA, Anambra State. The criminal gangs operating within Ihiala LGA and Orsuihiteukwa in Orsu LGA, Imo State are primarily funded and sponsored by unscrupulous politicians to demonise IPOB and ESN operatives.
“We maintain that we have no interest in the selection process called the Nigerian election. Hence, we refrained from making any statement concerning the jamboree. Our only demand is a referendum date for us to decide our political, social and economic future either in a united Nigeria or as an independent Biafran nation.
“IPOB and ESN operatives did not ask any group to attack INEC facilities for whatever reason, nor did we issue any sit-at-home order within the election period.
“Anybody linking IPOB to the malicious sit-at-home order must be very ignorant. IPOB has its own channels to disseminate information, whether through its Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, or through an official IPOB memo signed by the Head of the Directorate of State of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Chika Edoziem. Any IPOB public information that is not from the above-mentioned channels should be disregarded.
“The attacks on INEC facilities within this period are not supported by IPOB, because that will not add any positive value to our struggle. We are only seeking Biafran freedom through peaceful means and not through violence.”
Meanwhile, Bruce Fein, the international counsel for the detained IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, has accused the British High Commissioner in Nigeria, Catriona Laing, of complicity in the continued detention of the agitator by the Federal Government of Nigeria.
Fein made the allegation in a letter titled, “Sabotage of immediate, unconditional release of UK citizen Nnamdi Kanu pursuant UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention Opinion No. 25/2022,” which he addressed to Laing.
Fein claimed that “evidence has surfaced that you personally are sabotaging Mr Kanu’s unconditional release as mandated under jus cogens norms of international law binding on all nations irrespective of consent. You have taken cynicism and hypocrisy to a new level.”
The lawyer said, “On July 20, 2022, the United Nations Human Rights Council Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued a unanimous opinion addressing United Kingdom citizen Nnamdi Kanu’s kidnapping, torture, extraordinary rendition, and protracted detention without trial by Nigeria acting in collusion with Kenya.
“Among other things, the Working Group Opinion called upon Nigeria ‘to take urgent action to ensure the immediate unconditional release of Mr Kanu.’
“The Opinion cataloged the serial human rights violations of Nigeria and Kenya regarding Mr Kanu.
Your government has taken extreme umbrage at Russian President Vladimir Putin’s violation of international law in attacking Ukraine and committing war crimes. But you have made the UK complicit in flouting international law like Mr Putin by affirmatively encouraging the Government of Nigeria to continue its illegal detention of Nnamdi Kanu. What is your ulterior motive? Oil and gas for the United Kingdom? Lucrative UK business arrangements?”
