President Bola Tinubu has sympathised with the Ezeife family, people and government of Anambra State on the death of a former governor of the state, Chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife.
Chief Ezeife, the Okwadike of Igbo-Ukwu, was governor of Anambra from 1992 to 1993.
A statement signed by Chief Rob Nwakaire Ezeife, the Ahaejiejemba Igbo-Ukwu on behalf of the family and the Ezeife dynasty of Igbo-Ukwu announced the death Dr Ezeife, a former federal permanent secretary, the first executive governor of Anambra State, a former political adviser to the president and former presidential aspirant. He also had the national honour of CON.
The statement said he died Thursday at the Federal Medical Centre, Abuja.
Tinubu in a statement by his spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale, extoled his towering influence, describing his passing as a painful loss.
He recalled the contributions Ezeife made in the shaping of public discourse and governance in Nigeria, as well as in laying the foundation for the advancement of his state.
Governor Chukwuma Soludo described his death as a great loss to the state, Igbo race and Nigeria at large.
Soludo in a press statement issued by his press secretary, Mr. Christian Aburime, mourned Dr. Ezeife, recalling that besides serving the state as governor, he also rose to the position of a permanent secretary in the federal civil service.
Dr. Ezeife’s passage occurred less than a month after his successor as the second civilian governor of the state, Dr. Chinwoke Mbadinuju, a lawyer, was buried at his Uli country home in Ihiala local government area of the state.
Similarly, a former minority leader of the Senate, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, expressed shock over the death, describing it as the great fall of an Iroko tree in Igbo land and Nigeria.
The senator who is representing Abia South in the senate, also called for calm over the non-release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu by the Supreme court of Nigeria, assuring that Ndigbo would vigorously pursue a political solution that could ultimately set him free.
In a statement issued in Abuja on Friday by his media adviser, Uchenna Awom, Senator Abaribe lamented that Okwadike’s death had once more robbed Ndigbo and Nigeria of a consummate advocate of people’s right and equality for all.
