The widow of the late leader of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Mrs Bianca Ojukwu has stated her reason for staying away from the campaign flag-off of the party, last Saturday, at Alex Ekwueme Square Awka.
Her absence at the rally had kept party supporters wondering, especially as there had been a purported reconciliation, between her and the party, by the committee headed by Senator Victor Umeh.
Bianca, while speaking on her absence described the removal of her husband’s image from the uniform of the party as an affront and ill treatments to her late husband by the present leadership of APGA.
“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 party campaign, and turned off once the election is won”, she said.
The former Nigerian Ambassador to Spain expressed displeasure over the decision of APGA leadership under Gov. Obiano to expunge her husband’s image from the APGA uniform and other insignia of the party.
“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”, Bianca said.
She lamented that the report of the Sen. Victor Umeh-led Peace and Reconciliation Committee that visited her in Enugu a few weeks ago which pointed the way forward for APGA had been discarded by the Governor and the party leadership.
Mrs Ojukwu, however, indicated 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 the 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.