The weekly sit-at-home order by the Indigenous People of Biafra has been suspended in anticipation of the general elections in 2023.
The organisation stated that it would not issue any sit-at-home orders in connection with the election in a statement released on Thursday by its spokesperson, Emma Powerful.
The statement reads: “IPOB led by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has never forcefully obstructed the election process in Nigeria. Rather, 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 the 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 in the 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 the Biafra Nation from the Republic called Nigeria.
“We reiterate for the records 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 the Appeal Court and other courts have discharged and acquitted since the 13th of October 2022, and the Biafra referendum date.”