IPOB to hold Biafra referendum on presidential poll day

The Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has said it will hold a referendum on Southeast on February 16, the same day Nigeria will be going to poll to elect its president.

The referendum is “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.

Powerful said the leader of the separatist group Nnamdi Kanu is in London to finalise plans for the referendum.

“He will also discuss with IPOB top family members in London to finalize the way forward for Biafra referendum that will hold on February 16, 2019, along with the Nigeria presidential poll,” Powerful said.

The separate group said it has fixed the referendum day to run simultaneously with the country’s presidential poll because it will serve as a “barometer to measure those who want Biafra and those who want to remain in Nigeria.

“The success of the sit-at-home order during the presidential poll in Biafra land will be a confirmation that Biafra is no longer under the bondage of one Nigeria.

“The truth is that by the time Nigeria will wake from the looming political crisis she will only discover that Biafra is already a sovereign nation.”

The separatist leader had said there will be no election in South-Eastern Nigeria which he claimed to be Biafra land.

“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, we thank Israel for all the contributions they made to IPOB,” Kanu said in a broadcast.