By Adadareporters
Sheikh Gumi, the controversial Islamic cleric, says the reduced agitation by the Indigenous People of Biafra in the Southeast is because of the emergence of Mr Peter Obi as the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 general elections.
According to him, the entirety of IPOB’s agitation is a ‘political gimmick to acquire political power’.
Gumi posted this view on his Facebook page. He further said agitations by Oduduwa people had reduced with their belief that Senator Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, would win the 2023 presidential elections.
He blamed insecurity in Nigeria on bad governance.
Gumi wrote, “The IPOB rhetoric and loud voice of Biafra agitations have muffled out with the emergence of Peter Obi as the Labour Party’s presidential candidate. To them, Igbos have a platform. It’s clear now that the entire IPOB outcry was a political gimmick to get power.
“The Oduduwa clamours have abated also since Tinubu has clinched the APC ticket never to resurface again until probably if he didn’t win the race.
“Northern Ultra conservatives too have no mouth to speak of marginalisation or suppression of representation. The NNPP Kwankwaso has satisfied that segment of the society. No more claims of candidate suppression and manipulation.”
He however said Nigerians’ major challenge would be the commitment of the Independent National Electoral Commission to ‘conduct free, fair, and transparent elections in 2023’.
IPOB is a movement founded by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu for the actualisation of the sovereign state of Biafra, an unsuccessful initiative of Eastern Consultative Assembly which led to the Biafran of 1967 to 1970. It was led by Col Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu.
The initiative followed pogroms meted to Southeasterners in the North following the first military coup in 1966, tagged Igbo coup.
