The group’s spokesperson, Emma Powerful, said this in a statement on Thursday, February 2, 2023.
Remember that IPOB had called for a “sit-at-home” every Monday since its leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, was apprehended by the Federal Government in 2021 after being brought back to Nigeria from Kenya.
Violence has broken out in the area as groups claiming to be working for IPOB continue to harass people to carry out the order.
People in the Southeast still have trouble getting around on Mondays, even though the group has repudiated the sit-at-home order.
Powerful said on Wednesday that IPOB has not told people to stay home during the general elections in 2023, which is what the secessionist group had said before.
According to NewsXtra, the group had called for a boycott of the 2019 general election in the Southeast and has maintained this stance in the lead-up to the vote.
But the spokesman said that the boycott has been lifted and that people in the area are free to vote.
The statement reads: “IPOB led by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has never forcefully obstructed the election process in Nigeria. Instead, we once called Biafrans to boycott elections, which was later called off.
“We have maintained that we don’t have any interest in the Nigeria shambolic political selection process called Nigeria elections scheduled for February 2023. Our interest and focus is the release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and the date for Biafra referendum for Biafrans to determine their political future in or outside Nigeria.
“We knew that this mushroom group called PANPIEC is among those sponsoring this fake group claiming that they are IPOB issuing and enforcing reckless sit at homes in the East.
“If they are not their sponsors, why do they keep linking the paid agents of confusion with us even as IPOB has publicly denounced any link with Simon Ekpa and his collaborators?
“It’s on record and public domain that IPOB has not called for any sit-at-home during the February elections. It’s also obvious that IPOB and ESN do not have any faction or splinter groups. IPOB remains peaceful and indivisible under one command for the liberation of Biafra Nation from the Republic called Nigeria.
“We reiterate that IPOB has not, did not, and will not issue any sit-at-home order in February during the elections period. We also did not call for any boycott of the upcoming elections yet.
“The focus of IPOB is the release from illegal detention of our Leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, whom Appeal Court and other courts have discharged and acquitted since October 13 2022, and Biafra referendum date.”
