By Nwafor Okafor
The Indigenous People of Biafra has denied having any meeting with the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Senator Andy Uba, over the November governorship election in Anambra State.
The group’s Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, stated this on Monday in a statement titled, “We didn’t have any discussion with Andy Uba on Anambra Election”.
An online publisher had two days ago reported that Uba held a meeting with the secessionist group over the poll.
“Senator Uba had expressed concerns to the leadership of IPOB over their planned actions towards the November 6, 2021 election exercise. Being a candidate from national party whom the IPOB leader is being detained by, Senator Uba is concerned the IPOB would reacted negatively and openly towards his campaign. To this end, the Senator sought for their support and wanted them to stay out of the way on the day of election”, the report stated.
But the secessionist group in the Monday statement said it had no interest in any elections conducted by the Nigerian government, and would not have met Uba for discussion on such issues.
The statement read in part, “The attention of the Indigenous People of the Biafra has been drawn to the laughable and disgraceful statement credited to the governorship candidate of the All Progressive Congress in the Anambra election, Andy Uba that he met with IPOB members to discuss the forthcoming governorship poll.
“We therefore, want to make it categorically clear that Andy Uba met nobody in IPOB. IPOB has no interest in the zoo( Nigeria) election, and could not have met with Andy Uba or anybody or politician for that matter to discuss anything partaining to election.
“Andy Uba and his likes should leave IPOB out of their politics. Again, Andy Uba could not have possibly accessed the leadership of IPOB. He should therefore stop using IPOB to get cheap popularity.
“IPOB has no time for political desperados whose only interest is their pocket. How could we have granted audience to Andy Uba who has never issued common press statement against killings by Fulani herdsmen. What has Andy Uba done since our leader was abuducted to seek his release? It’s now that Andy Uba is involved in Anambra election that he knows he can engage IPOB?
“We challenge Andy Uba to disclose the IPOB members he met with. Again, we won’t tolerate the use of IPOB’s name for any scam. Enough is enough! We also warn media platforms to ensure they verify any news that has to do with IPOB before publishing. The media especially social media should stop using IPOB to market their platforms.
“We caution politicians to stop associating IPOB with their dirty politics. We have no interest in the zoo politics. Our mandate is to restore Biafra and we will not be distracted from that objective for whatever reason”.
