NNAMDI Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has warned that the November 18, governorship election in Anambra State would not hold unless the federal government conducts a referendum for the realisation of the state of Biafra.

Kanu similarly threatened that members of his group might also boycott the 2019 general election in Biafra land should the government refused to heed to the call for a referendum.

He said Biafrans were ready to go to prison if the federal government did not grant their request of having their own republic.

The IPOB leader, who made the declaration while addressing a crowd of protesters in his father’s compound in Abia State, said: “If the federal government does not agree with us on a date for referendum, there will be no elections in the southeast, we are starting with Anambra come November this year. There will be no governorship election in Anambra State,” Kanu said.

“In 2019, the whole of Biafra land will not vote for any president. There will be no senator, there will be no house of reps, there will be no house of assembly and there will be no councilorship elections in Biafra land if the federal government fails to call for a referendum.

“Nigerian government should build as many prisons as possible to jail all Biafrans because there is no going back and we are ready to go prisons unless the federal government gives us Biafra.

“We are not like any other people. People like us don’t come twice. That’s why I know that with the last breath in this very body that Biafra will be restored. There’s nothing anybody can do about it. Tell them that’s what I said. Nobody on this earth can stop Biafra,” he said.

It is not clear when the video was shot. If it happened after Kanu’s release from detention in April, then it would appear a violation of conditions set by Justice Binta Nyako when she granted him bail on health ground in April.

Kanu, who is facing charges of treasonable felony at the federal high court in Abuja, has been at the vanguard of the call for an independent Biafra Republic from the Nigerian state.

—  Jul 03, 2017 @ 01:00 GMT