Abia State Governor Okezie Ikpeazu has criticised his Deputy Governor, Sir Ude Oko Chukwu for not informing him about his desire of succeeding him in office.
Ikpeazu expressed his displeasure in an interview he granted to Dickson Iroegbu in Abuja, which was monitored by News Echo in Umuahia.
He pointed out that it was his discretion to forgive those who have wronged him that has kept his relationship with the Deputy, intact.
He wondered why Oko Chukwu would disrespect him by making his guber ambition known to everyone else before coming to tell him (Ikpeazu).
He hinted that he would have moved against his Deputy, if not for his ability to forgive people.
“My Deputy didn’t tell me he wanted to replace me,he didn’t consult me, he had gone everywhere before they advised him to talk to his Governor, when he finally came, I told him he has come a bit late, mind you, am the only Governor in Abia State that has ran almost 8 years with his Deputy”
“He became very ambitious and refused to consult me, I don’t have any place in my heart to harbour bitterness, otherwise I would have done what I should do, everybody knows what a person in my position can do to a recalcitrant Deputy,but I don’t think that is a way to go”
Ikpeazu during the interview also said he was never consulted before the Nigerian Army invaded Afaraukwu home of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu in 2017, saying that it was wrong for anyone to ascribe that he had a prior knowledge of the invasion.
” I was not told that anything like that was going to happen. I only saw the GOC who was at Enugu that time. He showed up in my office and told me that will arrest Nnamdi Kanu. I asked him why, he said he had orders to arrest him.”
” I told him to give me a few hours and he obliged. I called the traditional rulers and asked them to talk to Nnamdi’s father who was a traditional ruler to persuade Nnamdi to come and have a word the GOC but Nnamdi refused, saying he was under siege already in his house.”
He went on, ” I did not know that the soldiers were already everywhere.”
