Apga leader says party officials pleaded with Bianca not to run for senator but she remained defiant

GOVERNOR Willie Obiano's special adviser and the former publicity secretary of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (Apga) Ifeatu Obi-Okoye has warned that the party warned Bianca Ojukwu not to contest the Anambra South senatorial seat but she would not listen.

High profile and widely respected, Bianca, the widow of Apga founder Chief Emeka Ojukwu, was once Miss Nigeria and has served as Nigeria's ambassador to both Spain and Ghana. She decided to run for the senatorial seat in which her late husband's home town Nnewi was located but at the primaries held earlier this month, she was defeated by Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu.

In the keenly contested primary held at the Ekwulobia township stadium in Aguata, Bianca polled 177 votes to Prince Ukachukwu’s 211, bringing about an end to her senatorial ambitions. In the run-up to the election, Ikemba Ojukwu's children had opposed the plan saying it would not be proper to allow a woman from Ngwo, in Enugu State, to represent Anambra South Senatorial District.

Some members of the Ojukwu family including Dr Ike Ojukwu, Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu Jnr and Chief Debe Odumegwu- Ojukwu, argued that Bianca could, in the future, marry a man from another state. They also cast doubts on Bianca's marriage to the late Ikemba, noting that she was not one of their own.

According to Mr Obi-Okoye, Bianca was advised not to go into the poll by the Apga hierarchy to save her and Ojukwu as brand name from embarrassment should she lose but she was defiant. He added that both privately and public, Ojukwu’s widow was asked not to run but she insisted on testing her popularity, describing her outing and failure in the poll as unfortunate.

Mr Obi-Okoye said Bianca lost to a more experienced politician in Prince Ukachukwu, who has severally run for the position of governor of Anambra State and also for senate. He added: “It’s regrettable that she contested that election. She should not have.

"I am sure if our leader, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, was alive, he would not have allowed her to contest. It was unnecessary for Bianca to have run but if you decide to run, you either win or lose. She did not run because she was the widow of Ojukwu but she run to test her popularity.

“I am not aware she was badly treated in that exercise. Looking at the primary election, the man that won is Ukachukwum who has been around and has been in the National Assembly and contested for governor under the Hope Democratic Party, the PDP and the ANPP in Anambra State, so he is not new in politics.

 “On one occasion in my presence, it was the senatorial candidate from Abia South that moved a motion for the wife of our leader to become the vice presidential candidate and everybody accepted that. The motion was however, not binding on the board of trustees of the party or on Bianca but she stood and opposed it.

“I believed that in asking her to be the vice presidential candidate was a subtle way of telling her not to run as we preferred her to play a more nationalistic role. I also know that in a private meeting, Senator Victor Umeh, begged her not to run but she decided to join the fray and now she is hurt about it but we hope that soon all will be settled.”