The candidate of the Young Progressives Party in the forthcoming Anambra State Governorship Election, Ifeanyi Ubah, says there will be trouble if the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra insists that the November 6, 2021 election won’t hold.
Ubah, who represents Anambra South in the upper legislative chamber, made this known on Monday in an interview with BBC Pidgin monitored by The PUNCH.
IPOB had threatened that no election would hold in the entire South-East zone (Imo, Anambra, Enugu, Ebonyi and Abia states) till it achieved its agitation for secession from the Nigerian state.
Scores of police stations, offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission and other government institutions had been burnt by rampaging hoodlums in the past few months. Though security agents had fingered members of IPOB’s military wing, the Eastern Security Network, as masterminds of the attacks, the proscribed group had denied the allegations.
Speaking on the worsening security situation in the South-East and how it could affect the November governorship election in Anambra, Ubah said, “We will talk to our brothers – the IPOB people, they should not say no election because if they say so, they will be imposing something we don’t want.
“So, we have to tell them the importance. We know they have power but let them pipe down for us to do this election because if we don’t do this election proper, there will be trouble. Anambra is the head of Igbo Nation.”
IPOB had also threatened that the 2017 governorship election won’t hold in Anambra but the poll was conducted and the incumbent, Willie Obiano, won his re-election on the platform of the All Progressive Grand Alliance.
‘IPOB agitators fighting their Igbo brothers through sit-at-home order’
The PUNCH had earlier reported that IPOB pronounced a weekly sit-at-home order in the entire South-East beginning August 9, 2021, to protest the continued detention of its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, who has been in the custody of the Department of State Services for over three months.
IPOB subsequently suspended the Monday sit-at-home order, saying it would be observed any day Kanu appears in court but the last seven Mondays had turned bloody in the South-East as “unknown gunmen” attacked travellers, traders, students, and other persons who came out for normal activities.
Many had been killed, injured and vehicles had been burnt while banks, markets, schools, and other public places continue to shut down every Monday as people stayed indoors out of fear of being assailed outside.
When asked what the sit-at-home order by IPOB had caused Anambra, Ubah said, “You cannot estimate (it), the trauma also is so much. The truth about it is that our governors should wake up and engage with IPOB.
“It is IPOB that gave such order; talk to them, tell them that we are losing. We are agitating, we must fight for our brother but we can’t also be fighting for our brother and suffering our people.”
‘I believe in one Nigeria’
Ubah also expressed his belief in the entity called Nigeria, adding that the people of the South-East could achieve all their aspirations without seceding from the Nigerian state.
The senator said, “I believe in (the) Nigerian entity, I believe also that we, the Igbos, through the instrumentality of our state governments, can make Igbo a mini-nation inside the nation.
“We have everything as contained in the Nigerian constitution as a legitimate state, a state that can make what we want. I don’t think unless I change the name of the state; I believe that the more I get from Nigeria, I can now partner with our brothers abroad to bring the aspirations and what they want in the state.”
Ubah also noted that South-East politicians were working on a political solution to resolve the case of the detained IPOB leader.
The case of Kanu, who is facing terrorism-related charged before Justice Binta Nyako, has been adjourned to October 21, 2021, for continuation of hearing.
