The leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra Nnamdi Kanu Thursday night asked members of the separatist group to participate in Nigeria’s general elections on Saturday after initially calling for a boycott.
“Having confirmed this evening that all our preconditions and terms have been met, signed, sealed and delivered; I hereby call-off the election boycott across Biafraland on Feb. 16, 2019,” Kanu said.
Kanu had told members of the group to sit home on the election day as a form referendum to determine their continued allegiance to Nigeria.
The group, seeking an independent state of Biafra, said the boycott will serve as a form of a referendum of the predominantly Igbo people of the South-east’s wish to secede from Nigeria.
“IPOB will liberate Biafra and we will not take part in any election until we get a referendum, and this is not negotiable, we will achieve this by every necessary means,” Kanu said in a broadcast.
The referendum is to “ascertain number of those who want Nigeria politics and those who want Biafra freedom through a peaceful and democratic process for the sovereignty of our dear nation Biafra,” IPOB spokesman, Comrade Emma Powerful said in a statement.
The IPOB leader is facing charges of treasonable felony at the Federal High Court in Abuja.
