By Tony okeke Awka
The Movement for Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, otherwise called Biafra Independence Movement, BIM, hinted Monday, that no fewer than 14 million eligible voters from the Southeast geo-political zone, may be disenfranchised by denying them their right to collect their Permanent Voters' Cards, PVCs, to vote for the mass movement party, 'Obidient', Labour Party, LP Presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, for the long awaited change by Nigerians.
Consequently, MASSOB recalled that such scenario played out when the late Biafran warlord, late Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, was the presidential candidate under APGA, pointing out that such unholy alliance against Igbo caused Ojukwu's defeat in 2007.
In a press release signed and issued to newsmen in Onitsha, Anambra State, by the MASSOB/BIM Senior Special Adviser on Media, Elder Chris Mocha, he predicted that a treatment worse than the one meted to Ojukwu, in the 2007 general elections would likely be revisited on the Labour Party candidate, OBIDATTI in the February 2023 poll.
"This type of treatment by Nigerians who lived in Northern Nigeria and SouthWest during Ojukwu's campaign bid to win the Presidential election in 2007 under the platform of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), was undeserving for the respected Igbo leader and an embarrassment to Ndigbo," he stated.
He consequently noted that, " Igbo people are better off as a separate entity, but I urge the leaders of BIM/MASSOB to remain more committed, united, firm, resolute and work as if they have not worked before, for the achievement of a Republic of Biafra.
"About 14 million people may be denied the rights to collect their Permanent Voter's Cards, (PVCs), going by what is currently happening at some designated local government centers across the South East.
"This is because of " come today or come on January 2023 for the collection of your New PVC" mantra, by the officials of INEC in the region, a game plan to 'technically' deny elegible voters in the coming poll.
"As an Igbo man, no matter how you feel you are loved, tested, trusted and accepted by other tribes , BIM/MASSOB has predicted that a similar treatment worst than that of the one of 2007 would be extended to any presidential candidate from Igbo extraction aspiring to occupy the number one seat in the country."
'Visit some INEC offices in Anambra state and you will be told to collect your " PVC Replacement' or 'Transfer' while those ones who registered for new PVCs since January 2022 were told to come back on January 2023"
"Let us be very frank and not pretend that all is well but the naked truth is that Ikemba Nnewi and Dim Ndigbo was Presidential candidate of ( APGA) in the poll, coming sixth (6th) position with only 155, 000 ( One hundred and Fifty Five) votes, according to official results presented to the Nigerian people by the independent electoral commission (INEC).
"The very election, in which the electoral umpire declared the ruling PDP candidate ,Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, winner, was condemned by international observers as "not credible. Cases of mass rigging among other irregularities to favour the North were also recorded in South East , as well as other parts of the country," he stated.
According to Mocha, what upset BIM/MASSOB is that in the Igbo population of over 50 million, Igbo are not treated as part and parcel of Nigeria, which he revealed resulted in the agitation for a Biafran State by MASSOB on September 13, 1999, by Chief Ralph Uwazuruike.
He noted that the only alternative for the people of former Eastern region is a separate country with the name and title: Republic of Biafra, adding that it is such feelings of hatred, marginalization and rejection which led Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, to declare Biafra on May 30, 1967 as an independent State from Nigeria.
Mocha while also addressing some stakeholders in Umerum community in Ayamelum council area of Anambra State, expressed regret about the Nigeria/ Biafra civil war and the deaths of about three million people but said the leadership of BIM/MASSOB was proud that Igbo people had fought back in the effort that ensured the existence of "Republic of Biafra' till January 15, 1970.
He further warned political leaders to desist from attempts to wish away the yearnings and aspiration of Igbo, stating that such plan to work against the collective interests of the Biafran people will never receive God's Blessings, as Easterners need and deserve to quit Nigeria now without resorting to violence.