The Indigenous People of Biafra, or IPOB, and the Eastern Security Network, or ESN, have distanced themselves from attacks on the offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission, or INEC. IPOB emphasizes that it can only request that people boycott elections.
In response to the most recent attacks on INEC offices, IPOB spokesperson Emma Powerful accused the Nigerian Police Force of extorting its members.
The Imo State Police Command had established a link between ESN members and the attack on the INEC office in the Orlu West Local Government Area of the state.
According to the spokesperson for the Command, Mike Abattam, members of the ESN used improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to attack the INEC office.
However, Powerful claimed that the ESN is not a violent group.
This is his statement: We have never upheld nor involved ourselves in any political race block or brutality as a development. If necessary, the only thing we can do is encourage our citizens to avoid voting. Be that as it may, starting today, IPOB isn’t keen on Nigeria and its constituent exercises and has never requested that anybody do any go after for our sake.
“Linking IPOB and ESN to their sponsored attacks on INEC offices has demonstrated that the Nigerian government and its compromised police are working day and night to blackmail IPOB’s self-determination movement.
Because we are not interested in the upcoming elections that will take place in Nigeria in 2023, ESN agents never attacked the INEC office.