Wife of late Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, Bianca Ojukwu, said she was absent at the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) campaign flag-off in Awka, Anambra State on Saturday protest the the ill-treatment meted out against to her late husband by the leadership of the party.
The governorship candidate of APGA, Charles Soludo and his deputyIfeanyi Ibezim, kick-started their 2021 governorship campaign in at the Ekwueme Square Awka without Bianca Ojukwu.
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Bianca was conspicuously absent at the event unlike previous mega political activities held by APGA which branded late Ojukwu as the spiritual leader of the party.
Commenting on her absence at the flag-off campaign, Ojukwu said it was to protest the party’s leadership unfair treatments to her late husband.
She said, “It is an irony that today, Governor Willie Obiano has gone back to his own vomit by resuscitating Dim Ojukwu’s pictures for use in campaigning for the upcoming elections in Anambra State.
“This is the height of opportunism and hypocrisy. Is Ojukwu not the same man Obiano once described as a dead man who was no longer relevant to the party?
“Why should I permit him to keep trampling on the legacy of my late husband who put his heart and soul into this party?
“Ojukwu should not be like a light switch to be turned on for a party campaign, and turned off once the election is won.”
The former Nigerian Ambassador to Spain, expressed displeasure over the decision of APGA leadership under Governor Obiano to expunge her husband’s image from APGA uniform and other insignia of the party.
She added, “It is most unfortunate that Obiano decided to remove the picture of Ojukwu and replace same with his picture, just to drive home his statement that ‘he would no longer tie the fate and fortunes of APGA to the memory of a dead man’, obviously in reference to my husband”.
Ojukwu’s widow listed other ill-treatments meted to her and the late husband, saying that her presence at Saturday ‘s event would have been an endorsement to the defrauding of scores of aspirants by the party during party’s primary in 2018.
She stated, “It is unfortunate that the same APGA election managers that were responsible for the disastrous 2018 party primaries which resulted in severe damage to the party’s brand were also left to handle APGA’s 2021 guber primaries.
“Any political party that consistently robs its own members will not endure, APGA inclusiveness. “
She also lamented that the report of the Senator Victor Umeh-led Peace and Reconciliation Committee that visited her in Enugu few weeks ago which charted a way forward for APGA, had been discarded by the Governor and the party leaderships.
Mrs Ojukwu, however, said that she remained hopeful that in spite of APGA’s current travails that the party has a fair chance of producing the next governor of the state.
She described the party as presently constituted as a field of ‘sorrow’ for so many walking wounded from aggrieved aspirants, party members at the grassroots as well as party stakeholders.
Reacting, C-Don Adinuba, Director Media, Soludo Governorship Campaign Organisation, said that the omission of Ojukwu’s image on APGA uniform was not a ploy to insult the late Ojukwu nor the family.
“It was a mistake done by the person who handled the recent uniform the party printed”, he said.
Adinuba, who also is the state Commissioner for information and public enlightenment, said he was optimistic that Bianca has nothing against Prof. Soludo as the candidate of the party.
He said he was sure that by the next couple of days Bianca would join the campaign tour of Prof. Soludo
According to him, other issues on the conduct of party primaries in 2018 were matters for the leadership of APGA to respond to.
