PDP Thrashes Adeyemi, Demands Apology to Governor Ikpeazu |The Source

By Adesina Soyooye

Senator Smart Adeyemi, the Kogi Senator who inexplicably called Abia State Governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, a drunkard, on the Senate floor, a few days ago, is still coming under the slammer from shocked members of the public.

Adeyemi had, while making contributions to an unrelated  subject on the floor, surprisingly, veered off course, insulted almost all the leaders in the State, and called Ikpeazu “a champagne  drinking Governor.”

The irony is that Ikpeazu, a Seven Day Adventist, does not drink alcohol. Reactions to Adeyemi’s unparliamentary outburst have been coming like claps of thunder.

Governor Ikpeazu, a former mrmber of the House of Representative, called him a mad man, while the Senate Minority Leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe, decried Adeyemi’s indecent language. And so have many other people.

Monday, was the turn of the South-east Zone of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP. At an emergency meeting, the Zone, in a statement signed by its Publicity Secretary, Augustine Elochukwu Okeke, took an exception to Senator Adeyemi’s unprovoked outburst  against Governor Ikpeazu.

It said it frowns, and condemns it, and gave the Kogi Senator a seven-day ultimatum to apologise to the Governor.

The statement reads in part:

“… the ZWC, reviewed the recent unprovoked and misguided verbal attack on the Governor of Abia State, His Excellency, Okezie Ikpeazu (PhD), by Senator Smart Adeyemi.

“For clarity, below are the exact words of ‘Distinguished’ Senator ‘Smart’ Adeyemi:

“Mr President, in some states of Nigeria today, where you have ‘highly intelligent’ people, ‘highly educated’ people, ‘highly enterprising people’ like Abia, they are governed by drunkards. The governor of Abia is a champagne drinking man. He has done nothing for his people; roads are not constructed in Abia. Mr President. Abia people are impoverished more than ever before. Abia people are unfortunate to have him as their governor…Abia is governed by a man who is a drunkard…He is a champagne drinking man..”

“South East PDP wonders why Senator Smart Adeyemi, a non-indigene, non-resident, who arguably owns no property or investment in any part or territory of Abia state could resort to such untoward and derogatory language to qualify a citizen of Nigeria, not less a Governor of a state elected not once but twice by the indigenes and residents of Abia state.

“For someone whose name is Smart; for someone whose status is (supposedly) preceded with the appendage ‘distinguished’, such hollow utterances from the congress man from Kogi – full of hatred, dereliction, opprobrium, contempt, bile – which has nothing smart or distinguished about it, is an unconscionable desecration of the hallowed red chambers of the National Assembly, which if left unchecked may lead to the misconstruing of the senate chambers as a breeding ground for the use of gutter language.

“It would have been understandable, albeit inexcusable, if there were any iota of truth in the allegations that Senator Adeyemi leveled against the person of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu as the incumbent governor of Abia State.

“South East PDP considers Senator Smart Adeyemi’s outbursts as an unbridled defamation of the character of His Excellency, Okezie Ikpeazu (PhD), a highly placed member of PDP of South East extraction, and by consequence a slight and an affront to the people of PDP in South East.

“South East PDP, unequivocally frowns at and frontally condemns this unprovoked disrespect of the person of His excellency, Okezie Ikpeazu (PhD), the government and people of Abia state and the entire members of PDP in South East zone.

“Consequent upon this, the Zonal Working Committee of PDP, South East Zone hereby demands that Senator Smart Adeyemi should publicly apologize to Governor Ikpeazu – within seven (7) days – for this unprovoked defamation of character.

“Failure of Senator Smart Adeyemi to do this, would leave the ZWC of PDP, South East zone with no other option than taking every necessary measure to seek redress, including but not limited to instituting a libel suit against Senator Adeyemi.

Unfortunately there is nothing much they can do since the Senator’s pronouncement on the floor of the Senate is not subject to legal actions.