Ipob apologises for late call-off of election boycott saying negotiations were tough but it got assurances

SECESSIONIST group the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob) has apologised to its members for the late call-off of the planned boycott of Nigeria's elections taking place tomorrow saying it needed time to reach the decision.

Tomorrow, Nigerians will go to the polls to elect a president and members of the national assembly and on March 2 will elect governors and members of state houses of assembly. Up until earlier this week, Ipob had urged it members to boycott the elections, saying it would only allow them to go ahead if there was a referendum on the vexed issue of allowing Biafra to secede from Nigeria.

Ipob and other secessionist bodies are campaigning to recreate the defunct republic of Biafra which existed briefly between July 1967 and January 1970. However, the organisation has been under pressure to recount this stance as Igbo leaders have pointed out that a boycott will not serve any useful purpose.

Yesterday, Ipob leader Nnamdi Kanu bowed to pressure and announced that he was calling off the election boycott after meeting and discussing with numerous stakeholders. According to Mr Kanu, Ipob had got assurances that its conditions had been met, so he urged all the association's members to now participate in the polls.

Emma Powerful, Ipob's publicity secretary, said that the call-off was done after a meeting of the group’s directorate of state, which took time to evaluate its terms and conditions and the agreement reached to meet them. However, he remained silent on the terms met which necessitated its calling off of the boycott and which groups Ipob met.

Mr Powerful said: “It is important we notify the world at large and the Ipob family in particular that our leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has called-off the election boycott in Biafraland after a brief emergency session of the Directorate of State late last night. The meeting was presided over by our leader, where it was determined that all our terms and conditions had been met by those wishing us to lift the ban on voting and it was unanimously agreed that the boycott should be lifted.

"The signed document agreeing to Ipob terms and conditions are in our possession and will be made public in due course. We regret the lateness of this agreement that led to the calling off at the eleventh hour but it must be seen as a negotiating ploy designed to wear Ipob down which failed woefully as we stood very firm and got every concession we asked for in line with what our leader outlined in numerous recent broadcasts.

“Our leader made it clear on many occasions that unless our terms are met the elections will be boycotted and having met those conditions, our leader triumphantly lifted the boycott late last night. Therefore it is full steam ahead towards Biafra restoration because Ipob has achieved something most people thought was impossible.

Ipob worldwide has proven that the impossible is achievable with dedication and demonstrable sense of purpose. Therefore, we wish to inform the world that our preconditions and demands which we set out to accomplish from the onset, has been conceded to and taken care of without much alteration and our struggle for total Biafra independence has been enhanced as a result of this.”