SPOTLIGHT

Jun 17 2011

Ojukwu leaves London hospital – Bianca

BY: CHIDI NNADI

Preparatory to his returning home, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu has been discharged from Wellington Hospital in London where he had been receiving physiotherapy treatment, Daily Sun can authoritatively report.

The ex-Biafran warlord took ill last December and was flown to a clinic in Central London where he was treated of stroke and later transferred to Wellington Hospital as his health condition improved.

Ojukwu’s amiable wife, Bianca, who revealed this in an exclusive chat with Daily Sun yesterday in Enugu, said “the Ikemba Nnewi has left hospital and can now interact with people who come to visit him.”
According to her, the Eze Igbo Gburugburu would not return home immediately as he is still recuperating and needs to recover fully.

She also said his return would be delayed as many groups in Nigeria, especially the Movement for the Actualisation for the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) are gearing towards staging a colourful ceremony for his return. She told Daily Sun that her husband was in high spirit to return home as he is known not to be one who likes staying overseas.

Her words: “Eze Igbo is not the type that wishes to stay abroad when he was well. It is his sincere hope and wish that he is home, he hopes to return home to his people soon.” Bianca disclosed that Ojukwu was excited when recently the Imo State Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha brought his victory news to him at his bedside in Wellington hospital. This made her to recall when late last year the MASSOB leader, Chief Ralph Uwazuruike brought Okorocha to meet Ojukwu in Enugu as the one to fly the flag of APGA in the last governorship election in Imo State.

She disclosed that the Eze Igbo had endorsed the candidature of Okorocha because he was presented to him by Uwazuruike and his antecedent as a philanthropist. She said that before their coming, Chief Martin Agbaso was still nursing the ambition of having another shot at the Imo governorship seat, but Ojukwu believed that Okorocha would do well as governor having as an individual set up projects that are people-oriented.
She, therefore, said it was no surprise to them that Governor Okorocha came to London to share his victory with the ailing war-lord.

Bianca also told Daily Sun that Ikemba is bitter over the attitude of the Abia State governor, Chief T.A. Orji who, she said, had come begging Ojukwu to join APGA when he left PPA. She said that Orji disappointed Ojukwu because after he had come to him, the Igbo leader was committed in the project of seeing him through the election using the APGA platform, but for the governor to defect again to the PDP.

“Eze Igbo is bitter over T.A. Orji disappointment because it was a project he was committed to; the way T.A came to beg and he leaving without a word of goodbye, that he was going back to the PDP made Ojukwu to feel too bad,” she said. She thanked President Goodluck Jonathan for all he did to ensure that Ikemba recovered from his illness, saying that the recognition the president has given to her ailing husband was unequalled.

She said that besides the president coming himself to see Ojukwu before he was flown abroad he had since been sending his envoys to come and see him in his hospital bed in London. Bianca assured Nigerians, particularly Ndigbo that Ojukwu would return soon, saying that it was their prayers that made it possible for him to survive.

“If not for those prayers I do not think even with the best medical treatment in the world he would have survived. I personally saw the work of God in what happened to my husband. Therefore, I cannot thank enough those who had prayed for him,” she said.

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Jun 17 2011

Tinubu’s trial: Tribunal members nominated •To be inaugurated next week

AT last, the two members needed for the Code of Conduct Tribunal to begin trial of cases sent to it by the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) have been reportedly nominated, awaiting the approval of President Goodluck Jonathan.

A plethora of high-profile cases had been reportedly sent to the tribunal by the bureau, with the money-laundering and illegal operation of foreign accounts cases of former Lagos State governor, Senator Bola Tinubu, topping the list.

The chairman of the bureau, Sam Saba, had confirmed to the Nigerian Tribune that lack of quorum at the tribunal was responsible for the delay in arraigning Tinubu.

A former member, upgraded as acting chairman, Danladi Umar Yakubu, had solely been holding forte at the tribunal since the death of the former chairman, Adebayo Muritala Sanni, with the system completely inactive due to lack of quorum.

On the president’s table awaiting his approval were said to be two nominees from Benue and Cross River states, while Yakubu; the acting chairman was also said to have been granted full powers in another upward swing.

With his reported ele-vation as substantive chairman and two mem-bers already on the card, the tribunal, according to the Nigerian Tribune source, would be fully active next week.

The inauguration of the tribunal, according to a credible source, had also been tentatively fixed for next week.

There had been specu-lations that certain political understanding had stalled the appointment of the members by President Jonathan.

Nigerian Tribune can also reveal that commissioners of the Code of Conduct Bureau who had been on the field collating evidence on the level of compliance on asset declaration by the immediate past public office holders and the newly-elected, would be meeting with Saba either today or tomorrow, to brief him on their findings.

The commissioners were said to have been converging on Abuja since last week, with the last batch reportedly in, on Tuesday and the meeting to discuss their findings reportedly scheduled to start today.

Saba, during a chat with the Nigerian Tribune, had disclosed that some immediate past commi-ssioners in Nasarawa State had been found making untrue entries in their asset declaration form, with some said to be declaring N1,000 as account balance, even when it was discovered that they were lodging N1 million every month into the same bank account.

He lamented situations in recent past, when names of high-ranking public officials charged by the bureau, disappeared from the prosecution list at the tribunal, promising to plug all the holes as the bureau braced for the next round of prosecution of defaulting public officials.

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Apr 14 2011

Anambra’s political situation posed a great challenge – Jega

By: BEN AGANDE & Okey Ndiribe

Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Attahiru Jega, said yesterday that the political situation in Anambra State posed a great challenge to the commission as the situation was confusing but promised that the commission would set up a committee to investigate all the issues surrounding the matter.

Speaking on the just concluded National Assembly elections and the controversy surrounding the declaration of results for Anambra Central senatorial district, Jega said the commission would set up a committee to invite all the dramatis personae in the matter with a view to getting to the root of the matter.

According to him, Delta State is the “hottest in cases of ballot snatching and violence while Bayelsa State also poses a challenge to the commission as there were remarkable incidents of violence and  compromise of the electoral process.”

He promised that INEC would collaborate with security agencies in order to ensure that more security coverage is provided in the state in subsequent election.

Issues in Anambra

Recounting the issues in Anambra, Jega said a Registration Officer absconded only to reappear after the Resident Electoral Commissioner had appointed his replacement who had declared the election inconclusive.

He noted that some influential people in Anambra State might be deliberately influencing staff of the commission, knowing that in certain circumstances after the result had been pronounced, it is only the courts and not INEC that would reverse the situation.

In Bayelsa State, Jega noted that election materials meant for a particular polling unit were moved to a serving senator’s house apparently with the connivance of INEC staff and despite warning by the commission that result from the unit should not be announced, the electoral officer went ahead to announce the results.

He said though the police and members of the special security unit, the Joint Task Force in Bayelsa State were notified about the situation, they could not effect the arrest of the serving senator who perpetrated the crime.

On the complaints received by the commission from politicians who had been defeated at the polls, Jega said he had deliberately avoided meeting with such politicians in order not to send a wrong signal about his impartiality.

Speaking on the forthcoming presidential elections, Jega said the commission had learnt from the mistakes of the last elections and would bring its experience to bear on the presidential elections.

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