*We will not be distracted by sponsored blackmail against our peaceful movement, IPOB says.
A group known as the Concerned Citizens Network (CCN) has petitioned the United States and United Kingdom embassies asking for a probe of Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, LP over his alleged links with the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
The CCN in its separate letters to the U.S and U.K Ambassadors in Nigeria claimed that Obi has failed to publicly condemn the recent attacks in the South-East out of fear that it may hurt his 2023 presidential ambition.
In the letter signed by CCN President, Comrade Duru Odoh Chima and Secretary General, Ajibade Jacobs, the group alleged that Obi's promoters and financiers are IPOB sympathizers.
"We have it on credible authority that IPOB has tactically endorsed Peter Obi's presidential aspiration, which is mainly responsible for enlisting some known IPOB sympathizers into his presidential campaign council,” it reads.
"On several occasions, Peter Obi has systematically refused to make the IPOB threat to our democracy a campaign focus because the promoters of IPOB are his kinsmen and known financial contributors to his presidential campaign.
"This is a worrisome trend that would put the country in a precarious situation should Peter Obi be elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The deceitful game played by Peter Obi and his supporters can promote ethnic and religious tension in the country.
"In several public outings, he attempted to change the narrative concerning the formation and sustenance of IPOB by alluding that it was a creation of governors of states in the South-East. This, we gathered from reliable sources, was a part of the deal he entered with the group in return for support during the presidential elections.
"The overarching objective is to attack critical government establishments such as the Nigerian Police and the Independent National Electoral Commission's offices to harass and intimidate faithful of other parties into submission to voting for Peter Obi in the presidential elections.”
"It is thus our passionate appeal to the United States of America to beam its searchlight on the activities of IPOB.
"Hence this letter is calling on the attention of the United States of America to look into the unholy alliance between Peter Obi and IPOB. Nigeria cannot afford a president poised to propagate ethnoreligious conflict at this critical point of our existence.
"As critical stakeholders in our democracy, we wish to appeal for the urgent intervention of the United States of America in ensuring that Peter Obi and his supporters do not plunge Nigeria into a conflict of unimaginable proportions," the group said.
The LP Presidential candidate recently condemned the government’s proscription of IPOB, noting that the group was neither a terrorist organization nor were its members terrorists and they constitute no threat to the country.
We have no interest in Nigeria's elections- IPOB.
IPOB crowd.
Meanwhile, in a statement on Wednesday by IPOB Media and Publicity Secretary, Comrade Emma Powerful, the group reiterates that it is not interested in elections being conducted in Nigeria.
The statement entitled, "IPOB is innocent of all blackmail and refuses to be distracted," IPOB said in part,
"Following the numerous sponsored criminal activities of the enemies of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and the IPOB restoration Movement to smear our reputation, we the global family and movement of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) under the leadership of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu the Great, once again ask the public to ignore the concocted lies associating IPOB with the burning of INEC facilities, owning a bomb factory, and destructions of electoral party paraphernalia in Biafraland.
IPOB said the sponsors of the smear campaign whose aim is to discredit the group locally and internationally "are working with criminals to blackmail IPOB because we have refused to give up on Biafra restoration. They set INEC offices on fire and said it is ESN. They assassinated politicians and medical practitioners to damage our hallowed name and say IPOB did it.
"We know that they want to rig the elections in the southeast against Peter Obi and blame it on IPOB and ESN. They burnt markets and different properties of our people and tagged it on IPOB.
"They declared a 5-day ignored sit-at-home and killed our people and even killed a pregnant mother using IPOB and ESN identity.
Today, they are in disarray because we have known their plans, and we have exposed them.
"We maintain that IPOB has no interest in the selection process called Nigeria election 2023. We are also not responsible for any attacks on their political rallies or the destruction of political paraphernalia.
"These criminals and cultists recruited by the federal government of Nigeria and its compromised security agencies have caused a lot of harm to our people and our land."
IPOB further made clear that anybody or group caught attacking political campaigns or destroying political materials in the East should not be linked with the IPOB, "Those persons should be treated as common criminals."
"Ndigbo as a whole must be prepared and know that IPOB will not be involved in the Nigeria electoral process in Biafraland. Our concern and demand is the unconditional release of our leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, and a referendum date for our people to ascertain their fate in the contraption called Nigeria," IPOB said.
Politics and Opinion.
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