The All Igbo Youth Forum has threatened that Igbo youths will boycott the 2027 general elections unless Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), is released.
Chief Chinedu Obilor, the Forum’s National President, made the threat during a news briefing at the Secretariat of the Abia Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists in Umuahia on Tuesday.
Obilor stated that the organisation postponed its planned protest against Kanu’s extended incarceration following a talk with the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Benjamin Kalu.
He stated that Kalu promised the gathering that conversations with President Bola Tinubu about the IPOB leader’s release were ongoing.
He said, “We believe the president will listen to the cry of Ndigbo and release Kanu.”
According to Obilor, the forum’s position remains unchanged, and we cannot leave Nnamdi Kanu and discuss 2027.
He stated that the group would allow the deputy speaker two months to engage the president on Kanu’s release.
He stated that the group’s resolution required him to carry the demand for Kanu’s release to the president as soon as possible.
“If they fail, we will hold a 10 million-man march to Abuja and dare them to jail all of us,” he tweeted.
He queried why other agitators and terror suspects had been released while Kanu remained in detention.
“If they feel they will use Nnamdi Kanu to do politics, we will not agree.
“We’ll mobilise 10 million Igbo youths to march and tell the government we won’t vote if Kanu is not released,” Obilor said.
The organisation criticised the exclusion of the South-East from recent political appointments, calling it unacceptable.
It also addressed the continuing coalition in the African Democratic Congress, stating that “any coalition that refuses to cede the presidential ticket to the South will not fly.”
It stated that the South backed the North for eight years under late Muhammadu Buhari and that the time has come for equity.
