R.I.P CHUKWUEMEKA ODUMEGWU-OJUKWU (1933 -- 2011)

CHUKWUEMEKA ODUMEGWU-OJUKWU (1933 -- 2011)

Just 22 days after his 78th birthday, former Biafran leader, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu succumbed to the cold hands of death today at the Lynden Hill Clinic, london.
Ojukwu had been flown to the London hospital almost one year ago, precisely December 23, 2010, after he suffered what doctors called “massive stroke” and went unconscious.
A son of one of Nigeria’s richest men and educated in Britain, Ojukwu gained international prominence during the 1966 coup in Nigeria. An estimated 1 million people were killed during the ensuing civil war.
A coup against the Igbo people in the mainly Muslim north led him to proclaim an independent Republic of Biafra in eastern Nigeria in 1967. Despite international aid, the region long dependent on food from neighboring regions, suffered severe shortages during the next three years of continued fighting.
After being defeated in 1970, Ojukwu fled the country and spent the following 13 years in exile.
He returned to Nigeria after being pardoned in 1982 and subsequently ran in two presidential elections without success.