Senatorial bid: Intersociety backs Ojukwu’s widow, chides his children

A rights group, International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, on Monday, enjoined the family of the late Igbo leader, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, to stop actions that would belittle the patriarchate.

In a statement by the Board of Trustees Chairman of INTERSOCIETY, Mr Emeka Umeagbalasi, made available to newsmen in Awka, the group warned that the Igbo would not stand and watch Ojukwu’s legacies destroyed by anybody for selfish and pecuniary interests.

It maintained that the best way to reward Ojukwu for his selfless and altruistic leadership of the Igbo was for all to support his widow’s (Bianca) senatorial ambition.

The group’s admonition came a few days after the Ojukwu family members led by Emeka Ojukwu (Junior), dissociated themselves from  Bianca’s senatorial ambition.

The family had cast aspersions on Ojukwu’s widow, saying that having been married from Enugu State, she was not the proper person to represent the family and senatorial district in the Senate.

But INTERSOCIETY in the press statement asked the family to stop washing their dirty linen in the public, stressing that Ojukwu’s name was a brand and must be protected.

The statement read in part, “What should be the primary or fundamental concern of the children of Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu is not endless struggle for sharing or ownership of their father’s properties, but protection and immortalisation of his name and legacy.

“Late Dim Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu was never known and respected in Igbo land as a moneybags or a questionable billionaire, but as a heroic thinker, protector, liberator, revolutionary and visionary statesman.

“It is a settled saying that “a child of well-to-do parents who fights dirty over his or her parents’ properties as his or her only lifetime achievement or means of survival is a failure of inestimable magnitude.

“The heroism in the great house of Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu appears to have departed from his direct children and reincarnated in his beloved wife (Bianca)

“It is most likely correct to say that the absence of “heir apparent to Ojukwu’s name and legacy leadership has landed Bianca with the status of the heiress to the same name and legacy leadership.

“Bianca is eminently, traditionally, legally and constitutionally qualified to vie for or represent the Anambra South in the Senate if popularly and credibly elected.