November 15, 2017

Prof. Lai Olurode, a former National Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission, has called on the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) to have a rapport with the Federal Government to end its agitation for secession.

Olurode told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Wednesday that breakdown of law and order would not benefit any individual or group.

He was reacting to IPOB’s threat to disrupt Saturdays’ Anambra governorship election.

IPOB threatened to kill voters at the poll.

“The ordinary people will be worse-off. While IPOB’s concerns are understood, it needs to reach out and make peace.

“ You don’t gain anything when you want to go to war or clamour for breakup of a country.

“Every nationality should have a say about how it is governed, where it wants to be and how, but we need to go about with properly.

“We need to encourage our president; the president is doing some good work in certain respects,’’ Olurode, a Professor of Sociology in the University of Lagos, told NAN.

He advised IPOB not to challenge the legitimacy of the government but to channel its agitation through the National Assembly.

Olurode said that the peace of Nigeria was paramount.