'Al Jazeera Africa' Reacts To Online "Biafra Referendum Poll"

On the 7th of October, a Facebook page known as Al Jazeera Africa took to their official handle to encourage Nigerians who believe there should be referendum for separatist groups such as Biafra to comment with the hash tag "Biafra Referendum"

The statement read, "The Nigerian government led by former military dictator General Muhammadu Buhari has categorically stated that the country's unity under its watch is not negotiable, whereas fellow citizens in the Southeast and some part of the South-South think otherwise.

"If you're a Nigerian, and you believe there should be referendum for the separatists, comment #BiafraReferendum, share this post on your wall with same hashtag.

"This exercise is as a result of thousands of requests sent to our inbox"

The post has since garnered over 25,000 votes, but reacting to what it termed "misconception on purported referendum," the page said that Al Jazeera Africa lacks such powers to conduct referendum, but  it was a genuine exercise to get the opinion of those who support the call for a referendum.

"Addressing the misconception on purported referendum been conducted by Al Jazeera Africa

"On October 7th, Al Jazeera Africa agreed to thousands of requests sent to its inbox to get the opinion of Nigerians on the call for a referendum by the country's separatists.

"To this effect, Al Jazeera Africa urged those who supports the legitimate call for a referendum in Nigeria to comment and publicise the #BiafraReferendum [Hashtag]

"NOTE: It is no way a referendum poll given the fact that such cannot be conducted just on the social media and even if so, Al Jazeera Africa lacks such powers, but a genuine exercise to get the opinion of those who supports the call for a referendum by the 'missing' pro-secession leader, Nnamdi Kanu and if necessary the attention of the right body for such exercise in the West African nation."

Meanwhile, an independent investigation by cfrmagazine.com showed that the page which initially had barley 1,000 fans before jumping to over 17,000 is a clone of real Al Jazeera's Facebook handle.