Sir Ifeanyi Ejiofor, lead counsel to the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has advised people in the South-East to disregard any directive urging them to stay away from the 2027 general elections.
Ejiofor warned that boycotting the polls could further weaken the region’s political influence and expose residents to consequences that would ultimately be borne by ordinary citizens.
His position came after IPOB issued a 14-day ultimatum to the Federal Government over the continued delay in the hearing of an appeal filed by its detained leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
The group, through its spokesman, Emma Powerful, had threatened to mobilise for a boycott of the 2027 elections across the South-East and other parts of “Biafraland” if Kanu’s appeal was not listed and heard within the stipulated period.
IPOB said the ultimatum was prompted by renewed concerns from Kanu’s family over the delay in the judicial process surrounding his conviction and life sentence.
But Ejiofor, in a statement issued on Thursday, rejected the proposed electoral boycott, saying political grievances should not be pursued through measures capable of hurting the same people they were intended to protect.
The statement, titled, “Ala-Igbo at a crossroads: Jettisoning electoral boycott before it becomes another tragedy,” urged residents of the region to preserve their political voice by participating in the democratic process.
“Any directive advocating an electoral boycott, under whatever guise or euphemism it may be presented, must be unequivocally rejected,” Ejiofor said.
He warned against repeating what he described as past mistakes in which political grievances were converted into rigid commands, leaving ordinary people to bear the resulting social and economic consequences.
According to him, abandoning elections could amount to voluntarily surrendering the region’s ability to influence decisions at the various levels of government.
Ejiofor asked the people to pursue their grievances through constitutional, judicial, political and other legitimate democratic channels.
He said he condemned any directive designed to compel electoral boycott in Ala-Igbo, particularly where those issuing such directives were not directly accountable to the people who would suffer the consequences.
“Those who are gathering the storm should understand that Ala-Igbo is no longer available for experimentation with destructive political theories. Our people have endured enough. Our communities have suffered enough. Our economy has paid enough,” he said.
The lawyer also warned that political confrontation should not come at the expense of the region’s economic survival or the future of its younger generation.
“Our children deserve a future that is not perpetually held hostage by the political calculations of faceless actors. Ndị Igbo must reject every attempt to drag them backwards,” he said.
Ejiofor maintained that protecting the South-East required preserving peace and strengthening its institutions rather than making the region ungovernable.
“A people do not preserve their homeland by rendering it ungovernable; they preserve it by protecting its peace, strengthening its institutions and relentlessly pursuing justice through every legitimate avenue available to them,” he stated.
He further rejected the notion that patriotism or political loyalty should require the people to abandon their constitutional right to vote.
“Patriotism cannot mean deliberately weakening one’s own people. Resistance cannot mean destroying one’s own economic foundation. And political fidelity cannot require sacrificing the lives and livelihoods of an entire generation,” he said.
Ejiofor urged political and community leaders in the region to listen to the people and avoid measures that could plunge Ala-Igbo into another cycle of instability.
“Ala-Igbo must not be sacrificed on the altar of political absolutism,” he added.
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