The Senior Special Assistant to Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra state on Political Matters, Hon. Arinzechukwu Awogu, has stated that governor Willie Obiano was not in conflict with the members and leadership of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
Awogu who spoke at the residence of former Biafra warlord, Col. Joe Achuzia, said that Anambra state as the cradle of the Igbo race was not unmindful of the accommodation she owe to all shades of opinion in Igbo land.
“We are not in conflict with our IPOB brothers. We are as a matter of principle on the same page with them in the quest for a better treatment for our people and it is our view that with some degree of understanding and a little flexibility in our approaches to resolving the Igbo question, we could make Ndigbo win on all sides of our struggles for a better homeland.”
The aide with his entourage were at the residence of the Civil war famed Aeronautic engineer, to celebrate his 90th birthday and to wish him many more years in good health as he continues to direct the affairs of the Biafrans as the most senior surviving member of the Biafran revolution.
Col. Achuzia, who at 90 is still mentally alert, thanked Governor Obiano for sending Hon. Awogu to visit him as he marksed his birthday, saying that he bore the brunt of the civil war as he was thrown into jail for seven years after the war ended on the orders of the federal government under Gen. Yakubu Gowon.
Achuzia who Secretary General of the Indigenous People of Biafra bemoaned those that were in power at the end of the civil war did everything against his person because of his role in the civil war except that they didn’t harm him which he attributed to God’s doing , and for him to live to clock 90 years can only be God’s extraordinary grace.
Col. Achuzia, who does not mince words on topical issues demanded that he, as a person, should be addressed as “a Biafran” as that reflects his true identity.
He went on to say that he was particularly impressed with the way Gov. Willie Obiano resolved the issue of the Boko Haram convicts that were brought to Ekwulobia, in Anambra state to spite Ndigbo and created a sense of apprehension and insecurity among the people.
He affirmed that it is only a true son that could have wrestled the federal government into relocating the terrorists from Ekwulobia, stressing that Gov. Willie Obiano’s relocation of the Boko Haram convicts from Anambra state and the entire Igboland was the second frontal confrontation the governor was having in his defense of Ndigbo against the Nigerian establishment, the first being the governor’s insistence on burying Biafran war victims and opting to go to jail as a result.
