The leadership of the Biafra Independence Movement and the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra has accused former governors of Anambra and Imo state, Peter Obi, and Rochas Okorocha of Imo State of betrayed the late Biafran leader, Chukwuemeka Ojukwu.
In a statement by its Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mazi Mocha, the group said Obi and Okorocha betrayed Ojukwu by abandoning the All Progressives Grand Alliance and defecting to other political parties after serving as governors of their various states on the platform of APGA.
The organisation said if not for Ojukwu, Obi would not have become the governor of Anambra State in 2003.
Mocha said, “As BIM-MASSOB prepares to celebrate the 12th edition of Ojukwu Memorial Day on November 26, there was a need for the leadership to let the world know that former governors of Anambra State, Peter Obi, and his Imo State counterpart, Chief Rochas Okorocha, betrayed the late Dim Chukwuemeka Ojukwu.
A few months after the death of the founder of APGA in November 2011, and the funeral ceremony in 2012, Peter Obi defected to the People’s Democratic Party where he later became the vice presidential candidate to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the party.
“When Obi could not secure the presidential ticket of the PDP, he quickly left the PDP to hurriedly join the Labour Party, where he emerged as the presidential flagbearer of the party in the February 25, 2023 general elections.
“If not for the Ikemba Nnewi, the APGA governorship candidate in the 2003 election would not have become the governor of Anambra State.
“Recall that Dr. Chris Ngige of the PDP was declared winner in the said April 2003 Anambra State governorship poll before Dim Ojukwu waded in.”
BIM-MASSOB said it was regrettable that Obi never acknowledged Ojukwu’s role whenever he talked about how he reclaimed his mandate through the court.
“Peter Obi didn’t know about this deal, but every time during his media interactive sessions, he always said he didn’t spend any money to retrieve what he described as his ‘stolen’ mandate through the court process.
“Yes, Peter Obi didn’t spend money because Ojukwu and Ralph Uwazuruike didn’t ask him to bring money. For one to become governor or President, there are certain things that ought to be done that Peter Obi didn’t do; instead, he was engaged in consultation with the northern Emirs and Yoruba Obas.”
Continuing, the BIM-MASSOB spokesperson said, “It was also Ralph Uwazuruike who made Chief Rochas Okorocha actualise his gubernatorial ambition in 2011 on the platform of APGA. Our members supported Okorocha hoping he was a true Igbo son, and as a philanthropist could deliver the needed democracy dividends to the Imolites.”