The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has supported the call by former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo for President Muhammadu Buhari to shun contesting the 2019 presidential election.

Obasanjo in an open letter to President Buhari had called on him to retire peacefully to avoid being disgraced in the contest.

The letter has elicited praise and condemnation for the former president, but IPOB while reacting to it, praised Obasanjo for his courage, saying the same has been the stand of its leader, Mr Nnamdi Kanu.

In a statement by the Media and Publicity Secretary of IPOB, Mr. Emma Powerful, which was made available to THISDAY in Awka, the group condemned the endorsement of President Buhari by members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the South-east.

The group spoke further: “The statement credited to the former president of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was carefully timed to deliver a devastating blow to the scavenging class of political prostitutes in Igboland that shamelessly went to hawk their wares in Abuja a few days ago.”

The group described as shameless the endorsement of Buhari for 2019 by South-east APC, referring to them as a bunch of undignified individuals under the banner of Igbo leaders, saying that the action has portrayed them as selfish personalities.

Part of the release read: “We support Obasanjo for his timely intervention because at a time of national crisis and with people losing their lives all across the Middle Belt and Southern Nigeria, anybody discussing partisan politics under such an atmosphere of mass misery is not fit to be regarded as a human being talk less a leader.

“What Obasanjo said is the clearest endorsement of the philosophy of our leader, Nnamdi Kanu, that the only way to reign in a dictatorship is by confronting it head on with the truth. Obasanjo has spoken the truth and should be applauded for it. Those hungry and insatiable APC yes men that visited Aso Rock to endorse Buhari for 2019 under the banner of Igbo leaders should all cover their collective faces in shame.”

IPOB further stated that, “Buhari has nothing to offer apart from misery and premature death. Those who out of ignorance opposed the ideology of freedom as espoused by IPOB can now see that we are visionaries who should be praised not labeled terrorists.

“Chief Obasanjo has now seen the inherent danger of the cluelessness and visionless leadership of the Buhari administration. We also commend Chief Ben Nwabueze and Chief Mbazuluike Amaechi who have been speaking in this direction without fear or favour for some time now.

“Obasanjo’s statement is a slap on the faces of these people parading themselves as Igbo leaders. The timing couldn’t have been more apt.”

(THISDAY)