OJUKWU FOR BURIAL NEXT FEB -S'EAST GOVERNORS

By NBF News

The South-East governors yesterday in Enugu announced that the late Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu would be buried in his Nnewi country home in Anambra State next February.

Chairman of the South-East Governors' Forum and Anambra State Governor Peter Obi, who made this known after their meeting that lasted for over two hours at the Enugu State Government House, said that the remains would be brought to Enugu on February 2, 2012 where all ceremonies lined up to bid him farewell would take place after which the corpse would be moved to Nnewi and handed over to Ojukwu's kinsmen for burial.

Though Governor Obi had given the impression that Ojukwu would be buried on February 2, a family source told Daily Sun that after the Enugu ceremony, the remains of the former warlord would be laid to rest at Nnewi on February 3, 2012.

According to the source, the corpse of the leader of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) would lie-in-state in his Casabianca residence in Enugu where it is expected that President Goodluck Jonathan would lead the Federal Government delegation to pay Ojukwu the last respect. The governors who attended yesterday's meeting included Chief T.A. Orji (Abia), Chief Rochas Okorocha and his deputy, Chief Jude Agbaso (Imo), Chief Martin Elechi (Ebonyi), Mr Peter Obi (Anambra) and Mr Sunday Onyebuchi, Enugu State deputy governor, who represented Governor Sullivan Chime.

Governor Obi also told newsmen that besides the burial of Ezeigbo Gburugburu, the governors deliberated on security situations in the South-East and resolved that each state should beef up its security. An impeccable source at the meeting told Daily Sun that the need to strengthen security in the region stemmed from the situation in Imo State where kidnappers are now having a field-day. In the last one week, four people have been abducted. They include the Medical Director of the General Hospital, Umuguma in Owerri-West LGA, Dr Moses Amako.

Ojukwu passed on in a London hospital on November 26 after he was flown abroad on December 23 last year from the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Ituku Ozalla in Enugu State. Ojukwu was rushed to the UNTH where he was treated of stroke and later taken to a clinic in Central London.

In the Central London clinic, the Ikemba Nnewi stunned the hospital which called him 'General' as he pulled through and came out from the state he was brought into the hospital unlike the other six patients brought in less critical conditions, but who all died.

The death of Ojukwu at 78 had thrown the Igbo nation into mourning with the Ndigbo now observing a prayer and mourning session for him which was declared by the leader of the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), Chief Ralph Uwazuruike on December 1 and which would end on Wednesday.