Ojukwu flown abroad for treatment

Posted by admin Headlines, Raw Politics Thursday, December 23rd, 2010

CHIEF Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, national leader of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), who has been on intensive care at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Enugu, since Sunday last week, has been transferred abroad for treatment.

The ambulance conveying him moved from the intensive care of the UNTH at 11.00 a.m. on Thursday.

The national chairman of APGA, Chief Victor Umeh, who was at the hospital to direct the transfer, told the News Agency of

Nigeria (NAN) that “Dim is being moved abroad for further treatment. “We do not want interference in the movement,” he said.

Umeh did not, however, say where they were heading to abroad, though Nigerian Tribune gathered that he was being taken to the United Kingdom (UK).

The decision to take him to the UK instead of suggested South Africa or Egypt, our correspondent gathered, was informed by the resolve of Anambra State governor, Mr Peter Obi, who bankrolled the expenses to save the life of the former Biafran leader.

Umeh, who appeared agitated while chasing away newsmen, staff of the UNTH and other people who trooped out to see what was happening, said: “We are flying him abroad.”

Ojukwu was removed from the Intensive Care Unit of the UNTH through the newborn walkway and was rolled into a waiting ambulance with ‘Enugu State Emergency Medical Response Team (ESMRT)’ written on it. The registration number of the ambulance was 1ENSG3437.

The ambulance conveying Ojukwu and the motorcade then headed for the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu.

The ambulance arrived at the airport at about 11.40 a.m. Ojukwu was immediately put into a waiting chartered air ambulance with registration no D-CSIX, which was parked at the Nigerian Air Force wing of the airport, apparently for security reasons.

Before the arrival of the ambulance, the airport was cordoned off by men of the State Security Service (SSS) and other security operatives, apparently to prevent people from catching a glimpse of Ojukwu, whose face was covered with cloth.

The air ambulance, which arrived at the Akanu Ibiam Airport at about 10.45 a.m, with a team of foreign medical experts, however, waited for more than an hour before it took off at about 1.52 p.m. to the United Kingdom.
Nigerian Tribune gathered that the ex-Biafran leader would stay briefly in the UK, before he would be flown to the United States.

His wife, Bianca, her close relations and one of his sons, Emeka, were on hand at Utuku, in Enugu, to move abroad the former leader of the defunct Peoples Republic of Biafra.

Ojukwu proclaimed the former Eastern Region of Nigeria as the Peoples Republic of Biafra and became its head of state and Commander-in-Chief, which led to the outbreak of the Nigerian civil war in 1967.wp_posts