The last may not have been heard about the political squabble between the former Speaker of the Abia State House Assembly, Rt. Hon. Engr. Chinedum Orji, and the former state’s Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu.
This comes as the immediate past Speaker, in a recent media outburst, lambasted former Governor Okezie while stating that he learned hard lessons from the outcome of the just-concluded 2023 elections held in Abia and all other parts of the country.
He accused former governor Okezie Ikpeazu of secretly sponsoring his opponent in a rival political party to thwart his bid to be elected as a member of the House of Representatives for the Ikwuano/Umuahia Federal Constituency during the recently-held National Assembly elections.
Baring his mind against the heels of continued criticism from critical Abia PDP stakeholders trailing his appearance and that of his father and an ex-Abia Governor, Senator Theodore Orji, at the inauguration of Governor Alex Otti in Umuahia Township Stadium on May 29, 2023, he insisted that the days had gone when he fought for the good political interests of close allies and friends, regretting that he was being rewarded with blackmail and propaganda targeted to dent his image.
“When you have a governor-elect that wrote to you or extended an invitation to you from another party, please come and witness his inauguration; when you have a governor-elect reaching out to one of his predecessors who happened to be my father, please come and be a guest on his inauguration; if you are in my shoes, what will you do? I am throwing the question to you, the journalists. You will honor the invitation.
“Is it about politics or Abia State? Let me tell you something, my dear brother, the days of Chinedum Orji (Ikuku) fighting other people’s wars are over. If you want to fight anybody, come out and do the fighting yourself. Don’t hide under anybody.
“I fought against the current governor twice between 2015 and 2019. You all know about it. At the end of the day, who told you about those people I was fighting for? Did the person I fought for not reach out to the people I fought against? Who told you?
“All these people who were our enemies—didn’t the former governor go behind and reconcile with them? Didn’t he go and reconcile with them? Why must my own be a topic? Did he not visit President Tinubu the other day? Have you killed him?
“It is a season of do me, do you. I went there out of courtesy. And immediately after he was inaugurated as governor, I left. And since that time, he has been naming those who worked with him. Did you see my name? Did you see my relative’s name? Did you see the name of anyone close to me there?
“When you are hobnobbing with my enemies in the night. When you sponsored my opponent in the night and I decided to be a statesman, you had an issue with that. But you were sponsoring my opponents, and you want me to continue fighting your enemies for you. So that when I fight, you win. And you go by 2 a.m., invite him to your place, and reconcile with him. He will then tell him how bad and cankerous the boy is. He is always fighting. I didn’t send him I didn’t do this. All those “gamji” (scams) don pass. All those game periods don pass.
“If you want to fight, you fight. You come out and do the fighting by yourself. So, if you fight me directly, I will also fight you directly. I’m a man, and I’m not afraid of them. But for me, while I will do the fighting for you and you keep quiet, So, attending Otti’s inauguration is about Abia State.
It would be recalled that Theodore Orji and his son, Chinedum Enyinnaya Orji, were alleged to have single-handedly installed Okezie Ikpeazu as governor of the state after keenly contested gubernatorial elections in 2015 and 2019.
Ikpeazu consequently defeated Otti twice.
However, Ikpeazu lost the bid to install his anointed successor and candidate for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the just-concluded 2023 elections held in the state.
