Bianca Ojukuwu joins those urging Ipob to abandon secession and threat to disrupt Anambra elections

BIANCA Ojukwu has added her voice to the growing number of Igbo leaders asking campaigners agitating for an independent republic of Biafra to abandon their quest and scrap calls for the boycotting of the Anambra State governorship election in November.

Over the last two years, secessionist groups like the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob) and the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (Massob) have stepped up calls for the dismemberment of Nigeria. Over recent weeks, they have called for a boycott of the Anambra State governorship election due in November unless a referendum is held on the Biafra issue.

Amidst the heightened political temperature Igbo leaders have been calling for caution and in particular have urged Ipob and Massob not to disrupt the Anambra elections. Igbo pan-cultural group Ohaneze Ndigbo has led these calls for reason and caution, arguing that whatever the case, the democratic process should not be disrupted in any way, shape or form.

Adding her voice to these calls, Mrs Ojukwu, a former Nigerian Ambassador to Spain and the widow of ex-Biafran leader, the late Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, has warned those clamouring for the boycott of the Anambra governorship election to desist or have themselves to blame. She asked them to begin such calls in their home states instead of Anambra.

Speaking during the inauguration of the Akpokuodike Fan Club, in Awka, Mrs Ojukwu decried the near absence of federal government presence in the state in terms of infrastructure, insisting that the party her husband founded the All Progressives Grand Alliance (Apga), remained the voice of Ndigbo and should be supported. She warned that Anambra should not be used as a testing ground by Ipob leader Nnamdi Kanu and his separatist group.

Mrs Ojukwu said: “Let them begin it in their home states. Why Anambra? They better desist or have themselves to be blamed.”

She added that Apga and its leadership remained a replica and model of her late husband’s dream of a region where excellence prevailed. Furthermore, Mrs Ojukwu  underscored the need for the dream of the party to be upheld for posterity.

Yesterday, Anambra State governor Willie Obiano, stated that security reports available to him indicated that the architects of the threats were from outside the state. Governor Obiano is standing for re-election in November and Mrs Ojukwu is one of his main backers as he is Apga's candidate.