The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Friday resumed the call for election boycott in the Southeast ahead of the 2019 general elections.
The proscribed group insisted on a referendum and sovereign state of Biafra as part of conditions to end the renewed agitation.
It also demanded for the immediate disclosure of the whereabouts of its leader, Nnamdi Kanu and his unconditional release.
During a protest in Owerri, the Imo state capital, Friday, by hundreds of half-naked female IPOB membersโ cladded in black attire, the group derided Nigeria as โa failed country that does not hold any prospect for the Igboโ.
The early morning protest grounded vehicular and human movement along major streets in Owerri, while stern looking soldiers and mobile policemen were drafted to strategic locations to forestall breakdown of law and order.
The separatist group vowed to disrupt the 2019 elections across the Southeast, warning that severe punishments will be meted out on those who will betray the renewed struggle for the actualization of the state of Biafra by conniving with โNigerian agents to conduct election in Igbo landโ.
They accused the Southeast governors and Ohaneze Ndigbo, Igbo apex socio-cultural organization of complicity in the unprovoked killing of unarmed Biafra agitators by supporting military operations in the Southeast.
Some of the various placards displayed by the protesting women, had inscriptions such as, โno more election in Igbo land, we want Biafraโ, โNigeria is a fraud, we need Biafraโ, โno more elections, we need a referendumโ, โrelease Nnamdi Kanu now or face the wrath of Godโ, โwe are tired of Nigeriaโ, among others.
It would be recalled that leader of the group, Kanu, had called for the boycott of the Anambra governorship election in 2017 in defiance to pleas from Ohaneze Ndigbo, religious groups and other influential bodies in the Southeast.
