Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha has said that late Igbo leader, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, would have been one of the front seat leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) if he were to be alive.

Okorocha in a statement issued today in Owerri by his Senior Special Assistant on Media, Sam Onwuemeodo, said that Ojukwu while alive had been concerned with how to launch Ndi-Igbo back to the mainstream of Nigerian politics after the civil war. That, according to Okorocha, was why, when Ojukwu came back from exile in 1982, he did not join the Nigerian Peoples Party (NPP) that was somewhat ethnic, but joined the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) that was national both in outlook and in operations.

Okorocha noted that “the NPN then unlike the PDP of today, had an Igbo man as Vice President and other Igbo sons and daughters in sensitive positions.” He said that Ojukwu also joined APGA at the time he did, to protest against the gross marginalisation of Ndi-Igbo by the PDP, with no Igbo holding any sensitive position either in the PDP-led federal government or in the party.

“Ikemba Ojukwu would have therefore joined the APC with other progressives across the country having seen the party as the one that has good opportunities for the Igbos, even to become the president of the country,” the statement said, adding:

“Since Ojukwu had died, God gave Governor Okorocha the wisdom and the vision to take Ndi-Igbo to APC. What men and women of goodwill of Igbo extraction should do is to be grateful to the Imo Governor for leading the Igbos into APC.

“It would have been politically suicidal and dangerous if governors and people from other major ethnic groups in the country would be in APC and no governor of Igbo extraction, vis-à-vis Igbo people would be there. It would have been disastrous. This is why the Igbos should be grateful to Governor Okorocha for saving them from what should have amounted to worst embarrassing political situation.

“It is also disturbing that some politicians in Igbo land have failed or refused to appreciate certain political developments that would assist our people to a large extent, for some selfish reasons. The Igbos should file behind Governor Okorocha in APC and give him all the support and encouragement he deserves for standing out to be counted for the Igbos both at home and in Diaspora.

“It is also worth mentioning that a total of 637,000 Imo people registered with the APC during the last registration exercise in the state, and of course, the highest number any party had registered in the history of party politics in the state. APC using polling units to do the registration had paid off.

“The import of this development is that, the APC in Imo has taken delivery of the Imo electorate in a grand style, because in the history of elections in the state, no party had won the governorship election or the Senate, House of Representatives or Assembly elections with more than 400,000 votes.”

•Photo shows Governor Okorocha.