Date Published: 12/19/10

Ikemba Ojukwu slumps into coma...

The Ikemba Nnewi, Odumegwu Ojukwu’s health dipped at the weekend as the former Biafra warlord slumped into coma.

Pointblanknews.com sources hinted that Ojukwu who has been in an out of hospital, was rushed back to the Holy Rosary Specialist Hospital in Onitsha few days ago where he has been mute for about four days.

As at press time, his condition is believed to be critical but stable.

Odumegwu-Ojukwu was first admitted into the hospital in July 2007, after he collapsed twice at a thanksgiving service at the Basillica of the Holy Trinity, Onitsha .

At that time ,Dr. M.F. Omutah, who attended to him, said that the 74-year-old former Biafran warlord was in a stable condition.

At the hospital, a senior official, who gave his name as Kene, had said, “The Ikemba has been discharged.”

The state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Amobi Ileka, and his Information and Culture counterpart, Prof. Stella Okunna, also confirmed that Odumegwu-Ojukwu had been discharged.

“He has been discharged. His health is stable. He is very stable and alright now. He has already gone back to his house in Enugu,” they said.

Before he left the hospital, Odumegwu-Ojukwu had told Anambra Government House correspondents that he was hale and hearty.

“I am not critically ill. I am alright,” he said.

The elderstatesman explained to the correspondents, who accompanied Governor Peter Obi to the hospital, that he collapsed because the church was stuffy.

Obi, who was making his second visit to the hospital, also told newsmen that the Ikemba was not ‘critically’ ill.

According to him, until the Sunday incident , there was nothing wrong with Odumegwu-Ojukwu medically.

The governor added that the several tests conducted on the former presidential candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance between Sunday and Monday morning showed that he was healthy.