Top leaders of the In­digenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) have said that the United Nations (UN) was well-disposed to their demand for a referendum on Biafra.
They said that the UN may announce a date for the referendum before the end of July.
The leaders said that IPOB had intensified international lobby for the UN to facilitate a plebiscite for the people of Biafra to decide if they would continue to be part of a united Nigeria or have their separate country.
A senior IPOB leader told The AUTHORITY in Umuahia, Abia State, that some influential world powers and members of the UN Security Council had shown positive responses to the request.
He hinted that IPOB had secured an appoint­ment with one of the world powers to agree on a date for the referendum which would later be communicat­ed to the Nigerian govern­ment through the UN.
The IPOB leader said that the date would be announced after the meeting scheduled before the end of this month.
He also claimed that an important Middle East coun­try has formally recognised Biafra.
The official said that an envoy of the country con­veyed the news during a re­cent visit to the IPOB Leader, Nnamdi Kanu, in Umuahia.
In an exclusive interview with The AUTHORITY in Abuja, last week, an Arab diplomat explained why his country officially recognizes Biafra.
The diplomat said that President Muhammadu Bu­hari’s support for Palestine had not gone down well with the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as all Jews.
He said that Buhari’s pledge to help “our brothers and sisters in Palestine” at­tain independence was considered a serious provocation to the Israeli government.
Buhari had, during a visit last year to Qatar, prom­ised the Emir (Head of State) Tamim Bin Hammad Al-Tha­ni, that “we will stand side by side with you, until our brothers and sisters in Palestine achieve their desired objec­tives (independence).”
The IPOB leader, who is very close to Kanu, said that Biafra would be realised soon.
He regretted that instead of supporting the agitation, some “lily-livered Igbo polit­ical elites are singing discord­ant tunes because of their self­ish interests,” but noted that “they cannot stop the mov­ing train”.
His words: “Anybody trying to quell the agitation for Biafra is just joking because the agitation for Biafra is a mass movement; it has gone beyond even Nnamdi Kanu. It is now a moving train.”
“It is annoying that our political leaders don’t seem to understand the handwriting on the wall. That is why they met in Enugu and said they preferred one Nigeria to secession”.