Emeka Ojukwu Jr., son of Igbo leader, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu
The influential and outspoken son of late Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu, Emeka
Ojukwu Jnr., has alleged that his father was killed by his widow,
Bianca. While speaking in an explosive interview with News Express Nigeria,
Emeka Ojukwu Jnr, a legal practitioner and son of the late Biafran
warlord, Dim Odumegwu Ojukwu, alleged that Mrs Bianca Ojukwu killed his
father.
Ojukwu Jnr also talked about his father's death, how his name and
image have been abused, the role of his widow, Bianca and Anambra state
politics.
Here are excerpts from the interview;
Former Anambra State Governor Mr. Peter Obi saw your late
father as his political mentor and APGA (All Progressives Grand
Alliance), as a political party, made Ikemba the leader. In the 2010
Governorship election, your late father raised Obi’s hand as his last
wish that he should be elected for the second term. And this has caused
controversy. Are you comfortable with this?
I do not think it will be wrong for anybody to say that Mr. Obi’s
emergence as a political force is directly linked to the backing he
received from my late father. I know what you are referring to and I
would not want to go into the issue of who raised whose hands because we
all know he was ill at the time. The fact still remains that Obi was
Ezeigbo’s choice for that election.
On whether I am comfortable or not, I am not. This is as a result,
amongst other things, of statements being made by Bianca (Odumegwu
Ojukwu) and others at Governor Willie Obiano’s campaigns.
Is that why you have chosen not to join Obiano in his
campaign for the second tenure even when, according to sources, he had
severally invited and approached you to join him, and a lot of
activities are ongoing during Ezeigbo’s (post-humous) birthday
celebration?
It is one of the reasons. In the last three years, has Anambra
State celebrated Ezeigbo’s birthday? Have they celebrated the
anniversary of his death? Have any memorials been put up in his honour?
Have any edifices or institution been named after him? Now on the eve of
the election, it has become expedient to celebrate his birthday. To be
honest with you, the stench of the hypocrisy has become nauseating. I
was hitherto once an unwilling participant in this charade and I can no
longer abide by it. You have a situation where my father’s memory was
invoked to help usher him into office and once elected, all things
Ezeigbo where promptly set aside. Billboards with his pictures were
taken down, new party clothes and materials were printed without his
image, while the incoming Governor was focused on creating his own
identity. Now, three-and-a- half years later, Ezeigbo’s pictures are
back in full effect in an attempt to use his image yet again for some
people’s personal political ambitions.
Yes, I am aware of the invitations and I shall take my time in
choosing to take a stand with the candidate of my choice. The truth is, I
cannot go on a campaign with Obiano for one final reason, and that is
because of some of the people he has chosen to associate himself with;
people who speak from both sides of their mouth as long as it serves
their own interests.
Who are these people or such people that you are talking about?
I know that you are aware of what Bianca has been saying and I do
not want to associate myself with her. This is a woman who wants to
create an impression that she loved Ezeigbo, but while Ezeigbo was sick
she chose not to take care of him and rather pleased herself until she
got tired of waiting for him to die. She had made many disparaging
remarks about former Governor Peter Obi in an attempt to curry favour
with Obiano, forgetting that when Ezeigbo was gravely ill, Obi, with the
help of his friends, was able to get a private jet and took my father
to England so that he could get the medical attention he received.
She
forgets also that it was Peter Obi and other well-meaning folks who were
instrumental in persuading the then President Goodluck Jonathan to
accord my father what was, in essence, a state funeral. I remain
grateful for what he did for Ezeigbo and for the family. Keep in mind
that regardless of whatever support my father might have given to him,
it was not mandatory that he extend himself in that manner. After all
his name is Obi and not Ojukwu.
What do you mean by she chose not to take care of Ezeigbo?
When Ezeigbo had a stroke, he was being “treated” at home. He was
neither given a CT scan, MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) nor subjected
to any of the standard procedures applicable to a stroke victim. She
insisted on having him treated in his bedroom by her doctor, against the
wishes of the family for two weeks! At some point, family members were
stopped at the gate from inquiring about Ezeigbo’s condition. On several
occasions, I had to force myself in to see him. So all this
grandstanding that Bianca is putting up is just to create a false
impression about her relationship with my father and unsuspecting
members of the public are buying into it.
But we understand that Bianca was with your father when he
was flown to England and made efforts at taking him from Wellington
Clinic to another hospital known as Lynden Hill Therapeutic Centre.
All the evidence is available and well documented. First of all,
the air ambulance provided only had room for one family member and it
was decided that she should go with him in the ambulance.
You are right. Certain changes were made in terms of treatment
centres. Lynden Hill Clinic was the third place he was moved to. We were
dismayed by the decision, because you have to understand that
throughout his treatment, he required 24-hour nursing care, and that
particular centre was ill-equipped to handle a patient in his condition,
even with 24-hour nursing. That was why he was transferred, yet again,
to the Royal Berkshire when his health, predictably, deteriorated.
Several members of my father's immediate and extended family, including
myself, made a concerted effort to have him moved to a neurological
rehabilitation centre, where he would receive the sort of treatment he
needed. But again, Bianca blocked our efforts, and on the 25th of
November, 2011, a date I will never forget, without reference to the
family, she had him discharged from the Royal Berkshire and transferred
to yet another ill-equipped nursing home, this time in London, where he
died a few hours later.ᐧ
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