The apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has said the 2023 election will hold despite the threat by the Indigenous People of Biafra.
The group said the will of the people would overwhelm every distraction from participating in the poll at the South-East.
There has been concern over the possible postponement of the general election as a result of rising cases of insecurity in some parts of the country particularly in the South-East.
Also, there have been reported cases of attacks on people and INEC facilities by gunmen in the region in a bid to disrupt the forthcoming elections.
A video posted recently that has gone viral on social media which was seen by our correspondent, showed some masked gunmen threatening a man, shot the tires of his red Toyota Corolla car for putting on the campaign T-shirt of a presidential candidate.
One of the gunmen said, “We don’t want any political activity in the area.”
Speaking in an interview with Saturday PUNCH, the spokesperson for Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Alex Ogbonnia, said IPOB had not taking responsibility of any attack since its establishment.
He stressed that the security challenges within the region would not distract the peoples from participating in the February and March poll.
He said, “IPOB will not and they cannot stop this election from holding. There have been instances in the past like the second tenure of Governor (Willie) Obiano, the IPOB said there won’t be any election and a lot of us at the Igbo level, we intervened and election was held.
“Even in Anambra State, they said there won’t be an election, but the elders of Igboland intervened and an election was held.”
“It is possible that they may have made some remarks regarding that, but it is heart-warming that there would always be an intervention. People are free with their comments but ultimately elections must be held.
Credit: Punch