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From Godwin Tsa Abuja and Sunday Ani
Coalition for Good Governance and Rule of Law (CGGRL) has advised Senator Smart Adeyemi to apologise to Okezie Ikpeazu, Abia State governor, over his recent attacks on him.
The coalition described Adeyemi’ s outburst as uncalled for.
Last week, the lawmaker representing Kogi West Senatorial District, had, during a plenary, described Ikpeazu as a drunkard.
However, CGGRL, at a press conference, yesterday in Abuja through its leader, Isaac Ikpa, said Adeyemi should face governance and give quality representation to his people in the Senate and not resort into attacking others.
The group said Governor Ikpeazu is one of the shining lights of modern leadership in Nigeria today.
The coalition warned the lawmaker that failure to publicly apologise would “compel us to take further steps to test the liberty of freedom of speech in the Nigerian parliament in the judiciary.
“Only after the court’s verdict, we shall know whether parliamentary immunity includes the sort of hogwash or defamation Adeyemi hurled at Governor Ikpeazu.”
Meanwhile, the National Coordinator, Concerned Advocates for Good Governance (CAGG), Olusegun Bamgbose, has described Adeyemi as an attack dog of Kogi State Governor, Yaya Bello.
In a statement, yesterday, he noted that in an attempt to defend Governor Bello, Adeyemi had lost control of his tongue, hence his descent to the use of gutter language on the Abia governor.
He described his attack on Ikpeazu as most unfortunate, reckless, outrageous, unethical and highly disrespectful.
He said as a senator, Adeyemi was expected to behave like a man of honour, dignity and respect, but lamented that by his action, he disappointed his followers by insulting, not only the Abia governor, but also, the entire Igbo race.
This is unacceptable. Smart Adeyemi has behaved like a political toddler. He has actually painted the Yoruba race in a bad shape,” he said.
He also advised the senator to bury his ambition of becoming the governor of Kogi State because he clearly showed the Kogi people that he lacked what it takes to be governor of the state.
While stressing that Adeyemi was not even morally qualified to be a senator, he challenged him to show his achievements so far as a senator from Kogi West.
He described, as laughable, his courage to attack a performing governor like Ikpeazu, whose performance has endeared him to the people of Abia State and who is serving his second tenure. “It’s obvious that Smart Adeyemi has not visited Abia State to see firsthand the developmental efforts of Okezie Ikpeazu. He should realise that Ikpeazu is his senior politically. Attacking a performing governor is evil. Let him be warned that one more insult to the governor, I’ll expose him. He is not even morally qualified to be a Senator in the first instance,” he said.
Bamgbose advised Governor Ikpeazu not be distracted from continuing with his good works in Abia by characters like Adeyemi, even as he advised the senator to channel his attention to his state, which has become too backward due to the maladministration of his principal, Governor Bello.
