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Uche Chukwumerije, the senator representing Abia North
senatorial district of Abia State, has faulted allegations that he is opposed
to the recent appointment of Onyeabo Ihejirika as Chief of Army Staff (COAS)
and described the allegation as cheap blackmail by those who want to tarnish
his image or create disaffection against him.

Mr Chukwumerije, who is from the same senatorial district as Mr
Ihejirika, said the allegation by a group, the “League Of Isuikwuato Patriots”,
that he was signatory to a statement credited to the Igbo Political Forum which
criticized the appointment of the COAS, was wrong. Besides, he said, he did not
attend the said meeting as alleged.

List of signatories

Mr Chukwumerije challenged the authors of the advertorial,
published in a national daily, to produce the list of signatories to the
statement or even the attendance register of the meeting which took the
decision.

“This lie betrays a pathetic ignorance of my consistent
verifiable stand against oppression and marginalization of Ndigbo in Nigeria
since the end of the civil war,” he said.

He said anybody who knows him and his struggle against the
alienation of the Igbo in Nigeria would know that the allegation was a fallacy,
as the appointment was the fulfilment of what he has been championing.

He said he had, in a similar vein, issued a press statement and
commended the president for the appointment, saying “the appointment of Lt
General Ihejirika as Chief of Army Staff has broken a jinx of 40 years,” and so
could not have been opposed to it. Mr Chukwumereije, who picked the nomination
form to re-contest for his seat, urged the people of Isuikwuato and the
senatorial zone to discountenance the statement, as it was false.

On presenting himself for a third term at the Senate, he said the
constitution did not limit lawmakers to any number of terms and, as such, he
was not violating any arrangements.