By Akinwale Kasali
The Abia State Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu has replied and lashed Senator Smart Adeyemi, representing Kogi West Senatorial District at the Senate over his accusation that the Abia State Governor is a ‘Champagne Drinking’ Man’. The State is being governed by drunkards, Adeyemi said.
Reacting to the statement made by the All Progressives Congress, APC, Chieftain, the Governor through his Chief Press Secretary, Onyebuchi Ememanka, described the comments of Senator Adeyemi, as lacking coherence.
Senator Adeyemi, while contributing to a debate at the Tuesday Plenary at the Senate, caused a scene when he described Ikpeazu as a “champagne drinking man” and praised Yahaya Bello, Kogi governor, for “performing well”.
The senator said Abia has highly intelligent people but the state is being governed by “drunkards”.
In a statement, the governor’s aide said Ikpeazu “does not take alcoholic drinks and he is shocked” by the development.
“If Senator Adeyemi was of sound mind, he should have known that when it comes to education, Abia is miles ahead of his home state of Kogi. Indeed, not just in education but in every single area of development,” Ememanka said.
“Under the watch of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, Abia State has maintained first position in WAEC Examinations in the entire country for five years now. Kogi has not come close to the first 20. Never!
“Just last week, the National Bureau of Statistics adjudged Abia state as No. 3 on the list of States that attracted foreign direct investments, with only Lagos and Abuja ahead of Abia state in the entire country.
“It takes much more than drinking champagne to guide a state from zero foreign investments to No. 3 in the country. Kogi state featured prominently on the list of states that attracted zero investments. It is only a state that is peaceful and secure that has the capacity to attract such cross border investments.”
Ememanka said since Ikpeazu became governor, there has not been any case of an attack on any school.
“While his state is still awarding contracts for the renovation of schools, Abia had long completed more than 500 classroom projects scattered across schools in Abia State, and still counting,” he said.
Emamenka said he wondered why the legislator did not make any comment when the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) branded Kogi unsafe.
“Senator Adeyemi was never heard to have either responded to that statement by the NCDC or raise it on the floor of the senate,” he said.
“Yet, he has the effrontery to abuse a governor whose state has maintained one of the lowest COVID-19 fatality rates in the country through proactive measures to protect our people.
“Between a governor who has consistently denied the existence of COVID and the one who has put in place measures to protect his people, one wonders who is the drunkard.”
Ememanka added that if not for the immunity Adeyemi enjoys on the floor of the senate, the governor would have sued him.
