The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi, has nothing to do with declaring the Indegenous People of Biafra (IPOB) as terrorists because “it is purely a court of competence jurisdiction’s affair,” a group, Peter Obi/Yusuf Datti Baba Ahmed Northern Ambassadors Worldwide (PONA), has said.
The National Co-ordinator of the pressure group, Malam Sani Muhammad Sani, said in a press statement today that Obi doesn’t have to declare IPOB as terrorists before he could garner votes from the North as insinuated by an APC chieftain, Alhaji Adamu Garba.
Garba, a former presidential aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC), was reported to have tweeted that the Obi may not categorically call IPOB a terrorists group because he fears doing so might work against him in respect of the 2023 election.
According to Sani, the LP presidential hopeful “will not be distracted by nonentities with such primitive approach of the likes of Adamu Garba who resorts to slander against law-abiding candidates with spurious and speculative stories to get cheap attention and recognition.”
He added that Obi will get an unprecedented number of votes from Northerners as the region needs politicians of Obi and Baba Ahmed’s calibre, ones who “have the zeal inside them to promote unity, progress, development and security of lives and property of country.”
Sani said: “The likes of Adamu Garba and his APC should allow Peter Obi to focus and plan on how to correct the rot and corruption perpetrated by the APC, coupled with hardship the party unleashed on Nigerians, when elected in 2023.”
He added: “PONA is confident that Peter Obi will deliver the North and the core North without sweat.
“Obi has solid foundation in the North with associations, individuals and groups turning around their focus towards pitching tent with His Excellency Peter Obi.”
He called on the likes of Adamu Garba to shun ethnic jingoism and religious bigotry and seek “other channels of getting cheap publicity instead of attacking Peter Obi to achieve so.”
