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Shooting of Abia poly students unacceptable – Gov Ikpeazu

September 25, 2021 No Comments

The Abia State Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu, on Friday condemned the shooting of protesting students of the state polytechnic by police officers deployed to the institution’s campus in Aba.

The students were protesting the alleged sexual assault of a female student of the polytechnic by some policemen attached to the Eziama Police Division, Aba, and the non-accreditation of courses by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) when some trigger-happy police officers opened fire on them on Thursday.

Ikpeazu, who reacted to the incident in a statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Sir Onyebuchi Omemanka in Umuahia, described the behaviour of the police officers as excessive.

He said: “Shooting at unarmed students who were protesting the alleged sexual assault of one of them by a police officer is against all known and recognised rules of engagement by law enforcement officers who could have employed other means other than deadly force to disperse the protesting students.”

He assured that the state government was investigating the issues that led to the protest, saying the use of deadly force on the students was completely unacceptable and condemnable.

The governor charged the state’s Commissioner of Police, Janet Agbade, and the Area Commander in charge of Aba to fish out the officers involved in the incident and discipline them in line with extant Police Regulations.

Abia State Governor, Okezie Victor Ikpeazu, has taken a swipe at Senator Smart Adeyemi who described him as a “champagne drinking man”.

Ripples Nigeria had reported that Senator Adeyemi had last week during a Senate Plenary, said leaders in Abia State are governed by a drunkard while contributing on a motion, ‘Urgent need for the Revalidation of the Safe School Initiative in Nigeria,” sponsored by Senator representing Cross Rivers North, Odey Stephen.

The governor had hit back at the Senator in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Onyebuchi Ememanka, by saying that the lawmakers requires ‘urgent psychiatric evaluation for acute dementia’s.

Responding again to Adeyemi’s outburst, Ikpeazu speaking at a book presentation in Abuja on Monday titled: “Made in Aba”, written by the Minority Leader of the Senate, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, noted that there was no need to begrudge a madman.
Ikpeazu said: “I want to end my speech by volunteering for the first time, for those who would think that the man coming behind the microphone to speak as Governor of Abia State is a drunkard, permit me to say that I don’t drink at all and I don’t begrudge those who drink.

In other places, even countries that have less problems, they discuss big issues of security, economy and infrastructure development.

“They don’t talk about what people do and what they do not do. For us leaders, it is a calling.

“If you are called to lead you are also called to be a mentor to young ones and what you say, how you carry yourself and the things you say and the times you say them speaks a lot about how serious you are as a person.

“And that would be the size of my response and I would end by borrowing what Chinua Achebe said in his book: ‘If a mad man picks your clothes while you are in the bathroom and takes off and you go after him naked, nobody would know who is mad after all.