Obi, while speaking at Chatham House on Monday, January 16, 2023, said that he has condemned the activities of all rioters, who are killing and destroying property in the country to assert their demands.

The LP candidate said this when responding to a question about his alleged refusal to condemn the activities of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in the south-east.

In 2017, the federal government banned IPOB and in May 2022, the UK government accepted IPOB’s classification of Nigeria as a terrorist organization.

Many Nigerians believe Obi is avoiding speaking out against the banned group whose main agitation is to achieve secession from southeastern Nigeria.

This belief was apparently strengthened on Sunday, January 15, 2023, when the presidential candidate listed ISWAP and Boko Haram as terrorist groups and omitted IPOB from the list.

However, Obi maintained that he has always condemned all agitators, including IPOB, which has been accused on several occasions of killing and destroying property in the southeast of the country.

He said, “You are not following me, even yesterday I talked about Biafra ending 53 years ago. It is everywhere in space. I condemned all the agitators, but when condemning them, one must see what provoked these agitations everywhere. So, we have IPOB, we have the Yoruba Nation movement, we have all kinds.

“When you have created this level of mass poverty, where 63 percent of your population is poor, you are going to create all kinds of problems. I spoke to a British minister this morning, I told him we have about 40% unemployment, about 60% youth unemployment, young people of working age doing nothing, if there is 15% unemployment in Britain today you will have turmoil massive. No one will be able to leave their home.”

He further explained that the failure of leadership in Nigeria was responsible for the unrest in many parts of the country.

“What you have seen is a cumulative effect of leadership failure over the years, which will be resolved by good governance. When people start to see fairness, equity, and inclusive government and do the right thing, all of those things will start to reverse. (sic)”. he said.

Obi’s presidential candidacy is followed by many young Nigerians who refer to themselves as Obidients.