Over 20 million voters from the South Eastern geopolitical zone of Nigeria, shall be mobilised to exercise their civic rights in the 2019 general elections, a Pan Igbo organization has said. The organisation, under the aegis of Igbo Public Affairs Foundation (IPAF), made the disclosure in Abuja Thursday, at the end of its one day strategic and sensitisation roundtable. The group was apparently reacting to a recent threat by the leadership of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, who vowed that there will be no election in Igboland come 2019. Briefing journalists at the end of the meeting, IPAF president and convener, Hon. Uzor George Tiga, said it had become pertinent to review political activities in the Country viz a viz Igbo Participation in Politics as the build-up for 2019 General Elections commences. While denouncing the call for the boycott of the 2019 general elections by the Igbos, the group said the call for restructuring was no longer a joke and hence the need for a change of strategy by Igbo political class; with a view to prioritizing the participation and nurturing of Ndigbo to hold political offices. He said, “the call for restructuring of Nigeria is no longer a joke, it is a task we must vote for as IPAF will mobilize 20million Igbo voters to discharge civic rights come 2019; both within and outside the Southeast without any fear of intimidation by anybody. “We remain resolute that Ndigbo shall determine the 2019 General Elections in Nigeria and hence condemn in strongest terms, the undemocratic call for 2019 General Election Boycott in the South East”. IPAF, while commending political leaders from South East for timely resolution of their political impasse and now solidly supporting one of their own as a Vice presidential candidate, said, “this is how to show that Igbos could speak with one voice”. The group promised to study the manifestoes of all the different presidential candidates before making any endorsement, “even as all IPAF structures have been mandated to, as a matter of urgency, start popularizing this communiqué in their respective states and at the grassroots”. IPAF vowed to make restructuring its major cardinal agenda in the direction of the Igbos in the elections.
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