Ikemba Ojukwu Down with Stroke.

IKEMBA Nnewi and former leader of defunct Republic of Biafra, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, was, yesterday, admitted at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, UNTH, Enugu following a stroke which had kept him unconscious since last week.

Ojukwu, who turned 77, November 4, 2010,suffered the stroke at his GRA residence in Enugu last week and was being treated by his personal physicians until Sunday afternoon when his condition reportedly deteriorated.

He was admitted at the Intensive Care Unit of UNTH at Ituku-Ozalla near Enugu where medical experts and consultants are now battling to return him to consciousness.

One of the doctors at the unit who spoke with Vanguard under condition of anonymity, yesterday, confirmed that the former Biafran leader was on admission and was currently under intensive care because of his failing health condition.

He said: “I can rightly confirm to you that the Ikemba Nnewi had a stroke and was rushed down to the hospital Sunday afternoon. He is in the Intensive Care Unit and a team of medical experts are taking care of him.

“We believe that he suffered a stroke. He is in a good hand as every apparatus of the hospital has been deployed to give him the best treatment. Already a team of consultants and experts at UNTH are working on him. He is being given full attention and monitored effectively.”

Ojukwu, who contested the 2007 presidential election under the platform of All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, had been battling with an eye ailment in the past few years.

Some sympathizers at the hospital could not reach him, yesterday, but were received by his wife, Bianca and personal aides.

Ojukwu, at age 34, led the defunct Biafran Republic between 1966 and 1970 toward freedom and separation from the Nigerian State, after massive killings in the North.

Meanwhile, many of his supporters and admirers particularly members of the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB led by Chief Ralph Uwazulike, have started praying for his quick recovery.