The Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has said that part of the reason it fell apart with the President General of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Dr Nnia Nwodo was because it refused to sacrifice its quest for Biafra on the demand of the Ohanaeze boss.
According to him, Nwodo wanted to use it to negotiate for the vice presidential slot in the 2019 presidential election.
IPOB in a press release made available to DAILYPOST in Awka, Anambra State and signed by the publicity secretary of the group, Mr Emma Powerful stated that Nwodo among other things wanted to present himself as the only good man in the south east, with the hope of being nominated as a vice presidential candidate in 2019.
The group in the press release said, “It has become absolutely necessary to reply Chief Nnia Nwodo, on his Aso Villa sponsored umbrage on the great and noble IPOB and our humble leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. Chief Nwodo’s F.G- backed tissue of lies which was designed to blackmail and paint us as violent, disrespectful and unintelligent bunch of ingrates is only an arm of the war declared on us by the Federal Government of Nigeria.
“We begin by reminding Nwodo, that our leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu represents the righteous anger of the much abused, much betrayed masses of Eastern region, who have watched helplessly for 47 years as their so called leaders traded away their collective future for peanuts.”
In the press release titled ‘why we fell out with Nwodo,’ the group gave eight reasons why it decided to shun the earlier agreement being reached by Nnamdi Kanu and Igbo elders.
Part of the reasons was that, “Nwodo is piqued and pissed that we did not allow him to trade with the great IPOB and present himself as the overall leader of Eastern Nigeria, thereby packaging himself as the ultimate VP choice for 2019.
“We have nothing against his secret and hidden political ambitions. We wish him luck. It’s just that Nnamdi Kanu and IPOB will not be available for him to trade off. We will always prefer men like the 87 year old Prof Ben Nwabueze, First Republic Minister Mbazuluike Amechi and the upright Archbishop Anthony Obinna to lead us to any meeting with government.
“When we paralyzed Biafraland on 30th May this year and the oppressor panicked and responded with a quit notice, the F.G. immediately reached out to all the zones, Nwodo moved his train to Abuja and met with the Acting President, Osinbajo and announced that check points and appointments into Buhari’s government were our only grouse with Nigeria. This is a blatant lie because our leader agreed with Nwodo that Nigeria must show commitment towards addressing our key demand which is referendum.”
It said that even though Nwodo positioned himself as the leader of the zone, when a meeting was scheduled with Osinbajo despite the fact that IPOB agitation was what led to the meeting being convened in the first place, Nwodo did not ask for its input or grouse with Nigeria before attending the meeting.
The group said it fell out with Nwodo because he was piqued that every effort he made to join IPOB leader’s meeting with the governors at Enugu was turned down, while adding that it would continue to work for the restoration of Biafra.