The First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan has called on Ndigbo not to vote for the Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Muhammadu Buhari who deliberately imprisoned prominent Igbo sons and daughters on trumped up charges when they were actually innocent.
Addressing the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) rally yesterday at the All Saints Cathedral Field, Onitsha, Anambra State, said it was painful for Buhari to have imprisoned some reputable men like Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, former Governors Sam Mbakwe of Old Imo State and Jim Nwobodo of Old Anambra State and their wives, as well as former Vice President Alex Ekwueme in a selective trumped up charges, thereby breaching their fundamental rights and sad reminder that Ndigbo were defeated during the Nigerian civil war.
The First Lady said, “I am not here for propaganda like the APC. I am here to tell you that we can’t vote for someone who left his fellow Hausa men and women and imprisoned Ojukwu, Mbakwe and his wife, Nwobodo and his wife among other Igbo personalities even when they were not corrupt as alleged”.
“President Goodluck Jonathan wiped out our tears and made us to forget the pains of the Nigerian civil war. Jonathan is our Messiah and that was why Ojukwu blessed him shortly before he died”, Patience recalled.
President Jonathan, she noted has gone beyond the stipulated 15 percent women’s rights as agreed in the Beijing, China women convention and insisted that he deserved a second term in office, adding that Jonathan equally rehabilitated our hospitals, built health centers and equipped them to the extent that mother/child maternal deaths were reduced to a barest minimum.
She also predicted that APC would soon fizzle out after losing the elections, adding that for the Rivers State Governor to defect from APC to PDP was an indication that APC would die a natural death after the elections.
Also the PDP National Woman Leader, Kema Chikwe; the first Female Governor in Nigeria and former Governor of Anambra State, Dame Virgy Etiaba; the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh and Minister of Aviation, Osita Chidoka had expressed confidence that Ndigbo would vote for Jonathan massively since according to them, there is no vacancy in Aso Rock.
They therefore urged Ndigbo to vote for the PDP at both the presidential, senatorial, House of Representatives, Governorship and House of Assembly elections for the sake of continuity, starting from Jonathan as president, Stella Oduah as senator for Anambra North, Uche Ekwunife for Anambra Central and Andy Uba for Anambra South.
Prominent Igbo at the rally include Senator Ben Obi, presidential adviser on inter-party affairs; Senator Andy Uba, Princess Stella Oduah, former Minister of Aviation and PDP senatorial candidate for Anambra North Zone; Hon. Cyril Egwuatu, member representing Onitsha North/South Constituency in the House of Representatives, among others.
Highlight of the occasion was the presentation of a chieftaincy title of “Ugochukwu Tubelu” on Mrs. Jonathan, by the Otu Odu Onitsha Women Association and a souvenir by the Niger Diocesan Anglican Women Organization led by Mrs. Nwokolo, its president and wife of Anglican Bishop on the Niger, Rt. Rev. Dr. Owen Nwokolo. (Elombah).