Ikpeazu: Late Ikonne Most Qualified to Succeeded Me

Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo in Umuahia

Abia State Governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, yesterday, justified his choice of the late Professor Eleazar Uche Ikonne to succeed him in office, saying he was the most qualified to assume the reins of power and take Abia to the next level.

Speaking at a colloquium in Umuahia, organised in honour of the late governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ikpeazu said his sterling qualities stood him out among all the PDP governorship aspirants.

According to him, he needed “a successor who has courage and is ruthlessly committed to the realisation of the  ideals of Abia State and the fear of God, because I swore I must handover to someone with these qualities.

“After a long search, I found from among other aspiring contestants, that late Professor Ikonne was the most qualified. By his death, we have lost a rare gem. We  shall keep him in our hearts hence he did not die in vain.”

Though Ikonne, who was the immediate Vice-chancellor of the Abia State University Uturu (ABSU) emerged the governorship standard bearer of the PDP, he died before the 2023 election and was replaced by Okey Ahiwe.

The ruling Abia PDP eventually lost the March 18 governorship poll to the Labour Party’s candidate, Mr. Alex Otti.

Organisers of the colloquium said the event tagged “Preserving the Abia Dream” was in honour of the multi-faceted departed icon (Ikonne) to achieve a doppio ruolo: reflecting on his life and times as a cerebral change-maker”.

It was also geared towards “expounding and extracting possible perspectives to the Abia Dream as ensconced in the Abia Anthem, excellence, unity, resilience , hard work and tolerance.”

The keynote speaker and chairman of Ikonne’s Ngwa High School Aba Old Students Association, Chief Mike Ahamba, SAN, said the late Ikonne fully believed in the actualisation of the Abia Dream as  encapsulated in four ideals namely commerce, enterprise, equity and unity.

“With Transformational leadership in place and Institutions of governance at both legislative and administrative Institutions strengthened, we shall have governance excellence, good resource management and the follow-up economic excellence, the combination, all which would secure the  beautiful Abia dream,” Ahamba said.

Vice-chancellor of ABSU, Professor Onyemachi Ogbulu, said his late predecessor was a character moulder, and noted for his passion for hard work and achieving results, adding that his records at the university would be difficult to beat.