“The same Igbo politicians that worked against the presidential candidacy of Dr Alex Ekwueme at the Jos convention in 1999 ,are still the same Igbo elements in the APC working against the presidential candidacy of Mr Peter Obi with some new entrants like David Umahi”
The same igbo politicians that worked against the presidential candidacy of Dr Alex Ekwueme at the Jos convention in 1999 ,are still the same Igbo elements in the APC working against the presidential candidacy of Mr Peter Obi with some new entrants like David Umahi , professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo.
True story
Date line: February 14th, 1999.
We were all seated in Jos Township Stadium full of enthusiasm that Dr Alex Ekwueme was going to emerge as Presidential candidate of PDP. Prior to that, there was several attempt to compromise Dr Okwesikieze Nwodo, the party’s national secretary. He would not play ball. He was a man of integrity and stood firmly for Dr. Ekwueme.
We had Orji Uzo Kalu, Jim Nwobodo, Rochas Okorocha as frontline Igbo leaders in PDP. We banked on them to pull the cord in their states while Ekwueme of course delivered Anambra with the leaders. Ekwueme had backing from Adamu Ciroma while Bamanga Tukur, Abubakar Rimi etc worked against us.
There was every indication that at the 1999 PDP Convention in Jos, Ekwueme was defeating Obasanjo. From nowhere, Gen Aliyu Gusau emerged at the convention. Words came in that he had a message from IBB. All of a sudden, Jim Nwobodo took the microphone, spoke Hausa, followed by Rochas Okorocha. The game changed immediately.
Soon news flew around that Orji Kalu doled out N100m cash to Obasanjo for the election in stadium. That was the money that was being moved around and shared against Ekwueme.
In the end Ekwueme lost and Obasanjo emerged flagbearer. Ekwueme could only secure 520 votes while Obasanjo took about 1700 or there about.
The open anti-Ekwueme gambit by Orji Kalu, Rochas Okorocha, Jim Nwobodo and of course Paskan Jake cost us the rejection by other states.
Orji Uzo kalu went on to lend Obasanjo the sum of N500m for the election through his Hallmark Bank.
Even in 2003 when Ekwueme ran again, it was James Onanefe Ibori, the Governor of Delta who bankrolled and carried it on his head. On record is that the first person to cast vote was Orji Kalu. He voted against Ekwueme.
Today he is crying that the same Nigeria he served against the Igbo interest betrayed him.
The very day his Slok Airline debuted and its plane landed on Enugu Airport was the day Obasanjo revoked the license.
Obasanjo sealed Hallmark Bank, and accused him of money laundering.
