Participate in politics, shun street agitation, UPP urges “Biafra” agitators

The United Progressive Party (UPP) has called on agitators of “Biafra” to actively participate in politics rather than street protests, which exposed youths to avoidable deaths.

Members of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, at St Peter’s Square Rome, during their visit to Pope Francis at theVatican. Chairman of the party in Anambra, Dr Sylvester Igwilo, made the call while addressing members of some Biafra support groups, who met with UPP’s State Working Committee in Awka on Sunday.

The support groups included Movement of Biafrans in Nigeria (MOBIN), Bilie Initiative and Customary Government of Biafra. Igwilo advised the groups to shun political alienation of their members, and ensure that they registered and participate in the democratic process in the country. He said that young people had died due to wrong approach adopted by Biafra agitators. He added that the groups had also denied the South-East of fair share of national goods because they did not encourage their people to be enumerated during census and vote during elections. The chairman said that though UPP shared some of the concerns of the support groups, it would not encourage violence or unconstitutional means of expressing grievances. He urged the people to register massively as members as UPP and “vote overwhelmingly” for its candidate in the Nov. 18 gubernatorial election in Anambra. Igwilo assured that the party would conduct fair and free primaries that would produce the most credible candidate for Anambra people. He assured that the party was not available for moneybags or hijackers that did not share its ideology. “Political participation is the surest way to freedom and not violence; you must get your members registered to make them able to vote, so that through the ballot you can speak. “UPP believes in ideas and democracy; we do not support the death of young people in the streets and we are saying `no more’ to that and that is why we want you to be part of this process. “UPP will hold credible primaries that will produce the best candidate but he can only win with your votes; so the strategy is to mobilise your members to be part of us and vote,” he said. In her remarks, the National Coordinator of MOBIN, Ms Rita Anigbogu, said that their mission was to activate the relationship between UPP and her group in the state. Anigbogu said that MOBIN adopted UPP because the members were convinced that that was the party that meant well for the politically-marginalised. “MOBIN believes in the manifesto of UPP and adopted it because of that; we want to be heard in the parliaments and not the streets again; we no longer want to see death of our youths in the streets. “Anambra election is a litmus test for us and we want to ensure that the true party with the interest of our people wins on Nov. 18,” she said.