Alphonsus Nweze, Onitsha and ODOGWU EMEKA ODOGWU, Awka

The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) presidential candidate in last April’s election boasted that he was "fit as fiddle".

Ikemba, spoke to newsmen briefly at the Waterside Catholic hospital in Onitsha, yesterday when Anambra State Governor Peter Obi visited him, said that his collapse at the church during Obi’s thanksgiving mass on Sunday was due to the over-crowding at the church service.

Dim Odumegwu-Ojukwu who is believed to have left the hospital for home, allayed the fears of his followers and admirers of any likely danger to his life.

Daily Champion learnt that the Ikemba was discharged from the hospital yesterday shortly after Gov. Obi went to see him.

Ojukwu, called the Eze Igbo Gburugburu, slumped on Sunday at the Basillica of Holy Trinity Church at a mass for Gov. Obi presided over by visiting Philadelphia, U.S.A cleric ,Justin Cardinal Regali.

Yesterday, Gov. Obi and members of his cabinet visited Ojukwu in hospital before embarking on the commissioning of various projects in Onitsha and Awka.

Ojukwu said he almost fainted in the church on Sunday due to poor ventilation and excess inhaling of the incenses used in the church service.

His words: "Well, I don’t know what I have to say to people who are anxious over my health; look at me, do I look critically ill? I don’t feel critically ill, I feel all right.

"I nearly fainted in the church, everybody who was in church knew one thing at least, that it was pretty, pretty close within the church. And once the incense started, it was too much for me.

"Well, like everybody, you care so much for me, what next? You can’t let Ojukwu go like that. We got to look at him, investigate and see if there’s any thing. The good thing about all these is one, I rested and today, I have the results of the various tests. As I am sitting here, I haven’t had anything frightening coming from the tests."

Dim Ojukwu said he would have been in his home Sunday evening to watch the Nigeria-Chile match but for the insistence of the doctors that he had a bed rest.

Meanwhile, Dim Ojukwu was expected yesterday at his Independence Layout, Enugu residence.

As at 5.30pm when our Correspondent visited there, Ojukwu had not yet arrived from Onitsha.