Former rebel to fight poll
2006-12-04 13:45
Lagos - Former Nigerian secessionist leader Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu has won his party's ticket for next year's presidential elections, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported on Monday.
Odumegwu-Ojukwu, who fought a 30-month bloody civil war from 1967 to 1970 with Nigerian federal forces to demand a separate republic of Biafra for his 40-million-strong Igbo ethnic people, emerged as the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) candidate on Saturday.
"We will not abandon the nation to looters but the government will ensure that every Nigerian enjoys the God-given resources of the nation and be thankful for His blessings," the party flagbearer told party supporters.
Nigeria will hold crucial state, national, parliamentary and presidential polls in April 2007, the first move to a civilian transition in Africa's most populous country with a known history of political violence and election irregularities.
The election will choose a successor to President Olusegun Obasanjo, whose second and final term of four years expire on May 29, 2007.
The retired general, who was hero of the Nigerian civil war, is constitutionally barred to stand for re-election for a third term.