It said the group would not allow any election process that would perpetuate slave status and misery among the people of the area.
In a statement by IPOB’s Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful in Awka, the Anambra State capital, IPOD said it had not shifted ground on the issue contrary to insinuations in some quarters.
The group said it would use the Anambra poll to demonstrate to the world that IPBO would not make empty threats.
The Anambra State Commissioner of Police, Mr Garba Umar had warned that it would deal ruthlessly with any group that would threaten the Anambra poll.
He said, ” The election had been scheduled by an authorised government agency; nobody, including IPOB, has the capacity to stop it.
He said the police in the state had the capacity to suppress such threat, warning that those nursing such plot to have a rethink or be ready to face the wrath of the law.
Umar added” Anambra Citizens have the right to have periodic elections to elect their leaders; nobody or group of persons can deny them such right.
“We are here to provide them the protection to exercise their franchise. Nobody can’t stop them from exercising their constitutional rights. We shall have no option than to suppress such threat. We have the capacity to do so”, Umar stated.
But IPOB in the press state on Sunday maintained that it would truncate the poll.
“Biafrans cannot be reasonably expected to agree to any electoral process that will only perpetuate their current slave status and misery in this colonial contraption named Nigeria.
“While we may accept being routinely killed and dispossessed outside our land, such intimidation cannot be allowed to go unchecked in Biafraland.
“We are therefore calling on all those who claim to be Igbo leaders especially those on the payroll of Nigerian government to please retrace their steps before it is too late.”
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