Abia State Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu, has condemned Senator Smart Adeyemi for describing him as a ”drunkard” during the Senate plenary on Tuesday, February 23.
The Kogi senator, who contributed to the move on the Safe Schools Initiative in Nigeria, claimed that while Abia State is ruled by ”durnkards” and ”champagne drinking men,” some governors are working hard to make life better for the residents of their states. Adeyemi apparently said this in response to a social media post allegedly linked to an Abia-born senator, Enyinnaya Abaribe, who slandered Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State.
Reacting to Adeyemi’s comment, Governor Ikpeazu in a released statement said if Senator Adeyemi was of sound mind, he should have known that Abia is miles ahead of his home state of Kogi when it comes to education. According to Governor Ikpeazu, Abia State is not only ahead of Kogi State in education, but also in all areas of development.
A statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Onyebuchi Ememanka, reads.
“If Senator Adeyemi had his faculties intact, he would have known that Abia State, under the watchful eyes of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, has maintained its first position in the nation in the WAEC examinations for five years now. Kogi State has never been in the top 20. Not even once!”
Since Dr. Ikpeazu became the governor of Abia State, there has not been a single attack on any school in Abia State.
Senator Smart Adeyemi is clearly a non compos mentis. Otherwise, he would have known that Abia State had long completed more than 500 classroom projects scattered across schools in Abia State, while his state is still awarding contracts for the renovation of schools and still counting.
It is evident that Senator Adeyemi is battling acute dementia and has lost all his journalistic instincts. Otherwise, he would have known that last week, the National Bureau of Statistics determined Abia State to be number three on the list of states that have attracted foreign direct investment.
It takes much more than a glass of champagne to lead a state with zero foreign investment to the third position in the country. Kogi State is prominent in the list of zero investment states. Only peaceful and secure states have the capacity to attract such cross-border investment.
A few weeks ago, the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) branded Kogi State as unsafe because of its consistent lip service to the COVID-19 pandemic. Senator Adeyemi never responded to that statement by the NCDC nor did he raise it on the floor of the Senate. But he has taken the glibness, or rather the antics, to call out the governor for maintaining one of the lowest COVID-19 mortality rates in the country through proactive measures to protect the public.
One wonders who is the drunk between the governor who has consistently denied the existence of Covid and the governor who has taken steps to protect the people.
Let’s interrogate Senator Adeyemi’s statement further. According to him, his remarks against Governor Okezie Ikpeazu were in response to some remarks allegedly made by the Senate Minority Leader, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, against Governor Kogi State in a social media post.
This response, without further ado, confirms that Senator Adeyemi is mentally unstable. If Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe had made negative comments about Governor Kogi State, the proper approach would have been to address the Senator directly. Governor Okezie Ikpeazu cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, be held vicariously liable for the comments allegedly made by Senator Abaribe.
Interestingly, Senator Abaribe has categorically denied that he ever made such a statement to Governor Kogi.
For the avoidance of doubt, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu is shocked by the schizophrenic rantings of Senator Adeyemi, who does not drink alcohol and has never had any dealings with him officially or privately.
Governor Ikpeazu is making it clear to the lawmaker that except for the parliamentary privileges he unfortunately enjoys, Senator Adeyemi would have been presented with the harshest evidence of his outrageous and senseless statements in court.
Governor Ikpeazu concludes by advising the senator to immediately seek the help of a psychiatrist before his case gets out of hand.
