By Abraham Olatokunbo
The National Peace Movement has withdrawn its support for Labour Party, LP, presidential candidate, Peter Obi over his “blatant refusal to condemn the atrocious activities of the terrorist separatist group, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB)” in the southeast region of the country.
Now, the National Peace Movement in a statement issued in Lagos on Thursday by its National Co-Ordinator, Revd Arome Johnson, has called on Nigerians youths, to stop further mobilization for the Labour Party flagbearer.
Following his failure to weigh in on the worsening attacks on the electorates and electoral infrastructure in the southeast by IPOB and its militant wing, the Eastern Security Network (ESN).
The movement also alleged that IPOB and ESN are also harming citizens that they perceived as opposed to their anticipated forceful takeover of the government at the federal level by Peter Obi, being of the same ethnic extraction as them and in pursuit of their realization of the defunct Biafra republic.
“Our movement is worried that Obi has avoided condemning IPOB/ESN’s atrocious crimes even when each successive attack makes it clearer that the terrorists/separatists are bent on jeopardizing the General Elections in his home region. Obi’s silence over this unfolding development, therefore, suggests that his anticipated pathway to the presidency does not include emergence through a popular vote, which makes him a dangerous anti-democratic force,” it stated.
“Furthermore, Obi’s campaign has done nothing to distance his candidacy from the online rants of pro-IPOB/ESN accounts Social media accounts that had run IPOB propaganda online are the ones now campaigning for Peter Obi, a clear indication that the relationship between the Labour Party candidate and the terrorists is systematic rather than random.
“We note that in addition to staying mute in the face of the threats posed to the General Elections by his kinsmen, the Labour Party presidential candidate has taken his support for the terrorists further by structuring his campaign activities in the southeast region to align with the damaging sit-at-home blockade declared by IPOB and enforced by ESN/unknown-gunmen. A confirmation of this is evident in how Peter Obi’s campaign avoided scheduling any engagement for Mondays, the day that the terrorists enforce the sit-at-home.
” We also find it alarming that Obi has in the last couple of weeks garnered endorsements from treacherous individuals that have a history of pitching Nigerians against each other along ethnic and sectarian lines, which is a red flag that he would subjugate other regions of Nigeria to the southeast,” the statement added.
The movement tendered an unreserved apology to Nigerians, especially to families that have been bereaved or impacted by IPOB/ESN’s criminality in recent months, for supporting Peter Obi’s presidential bid in the last few months.
It explained that its earlier support for Obi assumed that he was the best among the lot but after realizing that he has refused to condemn IPOB/ESN’s rising criminality in the three months and has rather become sympathetic to the separatist group, it, therefore, called on other groups that believe in Nigeria to “withdraw their support for Obi and candidates seeking other posts but support separatist ideology in the country.”