In a video posted on Instagram on Tuesday, the renowned actor urged individuals of Igbo descent to disregard any rumours suggesting they should leave their homes for safety reasons until the election season is over.
During elections, citizens may only vote in the state in which they are registered to do so, which is typically their place of residence.
In the article, Kanayo stated that rumours are being propagated regarding safety and security as part of a "deliberate scheme to reduce the number of Igbo people who are eligible to vote."
The actor further said that the rumours are intended to reduce the number of Igbo people eligible to vote in the presidential election scheduled for February 2023 by compelling them to leave their respective states for safety reasons.
"I write this as a member of the Labour Party's presidential campaign council, but Igbos are the intended audience. "We must preach to the Igbos who live outside the southeast to remain where they are," added Kanayo.
"All of these war and attack rumours are intended to intimidate the Igbos into leaving where they are."
"And that will not succeed. They desire that they flee to the east and return following the elections.
"This film is meant to instil courage among our southeast brothers and sisters by demonstrating that he who battles and flees lives to fight another day.
"Do not seek to leave your place of residence, as this is a strategy to minimise our numbers. We do not have to die multiple times prior to passing away. Only a fool would do."
Kanayo also cited numbers he ascribed to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to illustrate that the Igbos' voting power can boost the chances of Peter Obi, the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, at the election.
"In this election, it is crucial that we remain where we are. This is the only way to guarantee our brother Peter Obi 25 percent of the votes in the 36 federation states," he stated.
"He rose from a man of southern descent to the head of a national movement. That must be accepted."
Obi, a politician of Igbo descent, is a candidate in the next presidential election.
The southeastern region of Nigeria has become something of a support base for the former governor of Anambra.
Nigeria's three-year civil war in the late 1960s and the enduring presence of secessionist parties in the south-east have long stoked political feelings regarding the battle to elect an Igbo president.
Obi's acquisition of the Libertarian Party's presidential nomination and his subsequent campaigns rekindle for the average Igbo person optimism in the potential of electing an Igbo president to solve an existing anger about "political marginalisation."
(Source: lifestyle.thecable.ng)
