From Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has vowed not to recognise the newly elected President of Ohanaeze, Professor George Obiozor as an Igbo leader.
Media and Publicity Secretary of the group, Emma Powerful, who disclosed this in a statement yesterday, explained that the group would not accept Obiozor because he was imposed on the people.
Powerful said: “IPOB closely monitored the jamboree in the name of the election that produced Obiozor as the new Ohanaeze helmsman, critically analysed the antecedents of those behind his emergence, and came to the conclusion that we cannot in all honesty work with him because we are not ideologically compatible.”
Powerful while further attributing the reasons for distancing themselves from the new Igbo leader said they feared he would only be a stooge in the hands of those who sponsored him.
“Obiozor may not be entirely evil but those behind him are unrepentant enemies of Biafra. Naturally, he can only do the bidding of his sponsors, thus sacrificing Igbo Biafra interest at the altar of few self-centred political desperados,” Powerful said.
He alleged that the group had already warned of the emergence of Obiozor with strong support from the North. “We have not forgotten that before the shambolic election of Ohanaeze president, sometime last year, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Associations of Nigeria (MACBAN) wrote a compelling letter to Aso Rock seeking Gambari’s support to install one of their stooges in Ohanaeze Ndigbo as its leader.
“We raised the alarm then but nobody listened to us; so IPOB cannot work with a man we know will be remote-controlled by a Fulani terrorist group in the shape of Miyetti Allah and by extension the Federal Government of Nigeria,” Powerful stated.